She's The Devil in Disguise
by HouseofFlies
Summary: Two years have passed since she abandoned her Reine and fell truly into Moriarty's web. She drowning in a dream, choking on diamonds. No one can touch her, not even a detective. Sequel to What Kind of Man Loves Like This.
1. Chapter 1

**IM BACCKKKKK! Work is nearly over, my dedication to Sherlock has been readied covered and I'm excited upon rediscovering my plans for this story. I have got plans to go back and rewrite the first instalment but...I don't want to yet so here we go. Please let me know what you think of it, and be sure to follow!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

August 2008

"Your claim has been noted and will be processed in the coming days. If it is approved, we will be in touch." Katherine stood, shaking her long curled ponytail over her shoulder and straitening out her dress as Thomas fetched her coat for her.

"Will he...will I hear from you?" Mr Carter made a move to stand but then thought better of it when he saw the bodyguard to her left, shift.

"It depends." The smirk painted across her lips make the man shiver and push back into his seat. "We'll be in touch." She already knew the request would be turned down. It was too small for Moriarty to want to pick up. It wasn't worth adding to the mix of jobs he was already juggling. The man she'd been sat listening to, making notes about, would be disappointed by the end of the day.

"Please, Mrs Moriarty..." She had grown use the name now, had done many months ago. She hadn't been 'Miss Reine' for two years now.

August 16th 2006, her wedding day. Spend on the beach of Tahiti with barely anyone around. Moriarty had hired the whole resort, populated only by 20 of his best staff to keep away anyone unwanted. A local priest had been brought in to marry them and then they'd spend the rest of the evening together. Sebastian had been forced to dance with her by Jim, but he had been their only witness. She wouldn't have had it any other way. She wore a thin white chiffon gown with floral details and she felt like the most beautiful woman in the world. Katherine had felt like a queen for the whole week they were there and upon returning it hadn't stopped. In fact it just got better. Moriarty started putting her out in the field and the more people who met her, the more clients who grew to recognise her, the more powerful a woman she grew in to. She felt less now, she had less sympathy. Katherine was an extension of Jim now and they both were finding it just peachy. She especially, when it came down to moments like this, with grown men shaking at the meat sight of her.

"I need this...I need this more than anything." She did nothing to hide the rolling of her eyes and shrugged her coat up onto her shoulders as it was held out for her to slide into. "My...my life is in this." It was only a small business plan, the type that needed to be ran off the books. Mr Lionel Carter just needed help to do the initial set up since he didn't know how. Unfortunately, that just wasn't going to be good enough. For Katherine, he had nothing big to offer. For Moriarty, it was just too ordinary.

"Like I said, we will be in touch." Without looking back, she left the man with no bill to pay and a still full bottle of wine to help nurse the disappointment. He knew, she knew he sensed it. It made it sweeter almost. It made the begging, puppy dog eyes come out which was always adorably repulsive. At the beginning it had tugged at her heart strings, but now it just caused her to smile with disgust. "Please tell me that is our last outing of the day?" Katherine asked Sebastian as he joined her to walk side by side.

Totally ignoring her, Sebastian removed his sunglasses from his pocket and slipped them on. "Jim called asking for an update, he wants you home." When didn't he want something?

"Why?"

"He's found something." As they approached the car, she stopped just short of the door upon hearing the words. There was no doubt in her mind what he'd supposedly "found", or at least she knew what it would be surrounding. He'd developed a new...interest, for lack of a nicer word. He had drowned himself in the topic within mere weeks. It was slow at first, a news clipping here or a whisper from a client. But it was rising. Now clients were starting to ask questions, cases were getting harder to keep off the books. And Jim was sinking deeper and deeper into the dark abyss.

"Something good?"

"He didn't say." Frowning, Katherine hesitated and took a moment to think of what it could possibly be. But it was a waste of her time. With a frustrated huff, she finally got into the car and they began the hour long drive back to the house.

* * *

As soon as they were home, Katherine removed her autumn friendly coat and threw it into the awaiting arms of a by standing butler. Her heels clicked loudly against the marble floors, her signature sound through the house. If Katherine was nearby it was either that sound or the smell of floral candles that gave her presence away.

"Where is he?" She spoke out to no one in particular but there was lots of their staff buzzing around either cleaning or organising. She knew one would answer.

"Mr Moriarty is in his office, Ma'am." The young girl didn't get a thank you, only the view of back of Katherine's head as she walked further into the house to seek out her husband. Once at the door, she still stopped and stayed silent before knocking, those habits had never left her. The need to make sure she wasn't interrupting was something that was impossible to shake.

But then she knocked, twice, hard and he responded with his welcome. "Busy day darling?" Her greeting was met with a preoccupied hum as he sat behind his desk. He hadn't changed a bit. Not since the day they'd met, he was still the same unpredictable spider, caught in the underground web. "The papers for Mr Carter's appeal, in case you want to look them over." Katherine smiled lightly as she placed the, very thin, file on his desk, making sure to keep it separate from the unorganised papers covering the wooden surface.

"Did it sound worthy?" He was at least listening to her now, but Jim had yet to look at Katherine.

"Not particularly, a waste of my time if I'm honest. But you might see something I've missed." Smoothing a hand over her hair, she spoke with a sigh and sunk in to the seat opposite him. Only when she was comfortable did she study him. Eyes red from staring at the computer screen, shoulders stiff and hunched. He wasn't in a good mood, whatever he had found wasn't good. "Is everything alright?" He didn't answer, he didn't even appear to be listening now. "It's him again isn't it?" That made him look at her. Only Katherine speaking of what overtook him, made him talk to her and it was an increasing trend.

"His brother, he's been quite the entertainment today." Jim gave a wide smirk and clicked open a file on the computer.

"A brother? Well that's a new discovery." Her hands stroked over her skirt, trying to work out the kinks in her nerves. With a nervous laugh, Katherine tried to peer at the screen but she could only make out one of the bold names displayed. That name. "What does this one do?" It had been interesting at first, there had been suspense and mystery. But after a couple of months it wore off for her and was replaced with frustration. There was barely any information accessible for them to find and Katherine became increasingly bothered by the amount of time Jim seemed to work on the new file. Her tone displayed her disinterest but when Jim smiled at her and laughed, she picked up. "What?"

"He's the Government." Well, that was certainly different to the other two lines of information they had so far. A name and occupation was all she had so far.

"In the Government?" Katherine repeated, sitting up ever so slightly. Maybe he could be interesting. It wasn't everyday they got to play with the great Government of the United Kingdom after all and the bigger the target, the harder Katherine worked. It was the perfect ammo for her.

"Is the Government." As her head tilted to the side, Jim smiled and watched the fire alight behind her eyes. Power, that all his took to spark her lust. "I don't know to what extent yet, but I will." Her turned back to the computer for just a second and then stilled, watching her darkly. "How do you fancy playing someone different, Katherine?" He had a plan, of course he had a plan. With some big news like this there was no way he didn't already have a plan.

"What do you mean?"

Jim stood and walked around his desk. She watched him closely until he crouched in front of her, making him just lower than her eye-level. "I've always thought of you as a good receptionist, you played the part so wonderfully for me." Taking her hand, he played with her wedding band before raising it to his lips.

"What do you need me to do?" He was always sweet, doting...as much as a husband of his demeanour could be. He ate with her, they talked and laughed, he filled her life with passion most regularly. But he also scared off anyone who would dare harm her or lay a finger on her. It was that fact that kept her loving him. That dangerous look in his eyes, the way his jaw tensed when a client dared say a word out of turn. She craved that. The mere thought made her heart beat faster. He had promised to make her his Queen and god had he delivered.

"I want someone normal, average. But intelligent, with a background and education which could warrant being accepted into working for the likes of a man at that level of security." He stood and moved to stand behind her. With hands in his pockets, Jim zoned out, most likely thinking of this brothers character as he talked. "There's more information upstairs. Go make a profile for yourself, I'll explain more later."

Her cue to leave was loud and clear. Katherine stood and came face to face with him. Smirking she pushed the side of her hip gently into his, brushing his front. "Is he a threat to us? This brother?" Jim watched her closely, unable to hid his sinister smile while his hand caressed her hip.

"No." Jim's lips formed a pout as he shook his head. "He can't touch us. He can't touch you. But I can." His sing song voice returned, tempting out her smile. A hand found its way instantly into her hair and the other to the small of her back as his lips forced themselves upon hers. "Get out before you end up distracting me." Slowly, Katherine stepped away and walked out the office, his eyes burning into the back of her as she did so.

Judging of the quality of work she did in the next couple of hours, she was going to get a big bonus on this months pay.

* * *

In a mess of knotted hair, sweaty sheets and limbs, Katherine's chest was still rising and falling at a higher than average pace. He had been unpredictable ever since he'd abandoned his own work to come look over her in her office. He's began with small touches, but before long his hand was tugging the strands of her hear and harshly undoing the buttons of her dress.

Katherine smiled to herself and went to roll onto her side, into Jim's chest. But he made a move before she got a chance, sitting up to perch on the end of the bed.

"Where are you going?" Her small voice broke through the still silence of the early morning when he pulled on a plain white t-shirt.

"I have work to do."

Katherine frowned and didn't bother to hold the sheets against her as she sat up. "It's late." There was no point in trying to detangle her hair as it nested around her face. Jim continued to dress, pausing every couple of seconds to tap on his phone. "Please?" He stopped all too suddenly but she continued on. "You've been away a lot lately."

"Someone's getting needy." Hearing the scoff made her temper rise.

"I am your wife, I'd say that allows me to be needy." That when the change happened. That's when his shoulders sagged and his deep exhale made a smug grin tug at her lips. He swung his head around low to look at her, only briefly, and then rolled his eyes in time with her final blow. "It's our Anniversary soon." When he raised his hands in defeat and fell slowly back into the bed, her heart did a double beat. It happened again when he actually pulled her closer to him.

Just small things, those are what she liked the most. That's what kept her mouldable and susceptible for everything he had planned for her. At the beginning he thought it would wear off, but two years later she was still there, the same and just as easy to play with. Like a tiger and a dead piece of meat.

"Two years. I haven't got rid of you yet." She shoved his chest, but Jim caught it and brought it back down. "I'm joking. It's just a joke, a plain and simple joke." Jim's voice was so quiet the whisper almost seemed forced and squeaky. It was comforting tough, to Katherine at least. Knowing he was so close by...even if what he was saying wasn't exactly romantic.

"You haven't gut me yet, that's a surprise." He still hated to admit that the woman made him laugh. He could still convince himself she was a game, a distraction. He believed himself less and less each day but there was still an air of belief there. Saying he didn't love how she entertained him though, he'd admitted that was a lie after the first year of their marriage. Her work was brilliant, her drive was sexy, her...what she'd become was his perfect woman. But she was a carbon copy of him, why wouldn't she be perfect.

"You haven't given me reason too." He paused as his mind turned onto another topic. He topic he seemed to have trouble being able to shake recently. "Rebecca Austin. Tell me...when you grew up in Kensington Square...did you see yourself growing up to marry a consulting criminal."

"No, but I'm so very glad I did." Katherine gave his t-shirt a tug, pulling him on top of her. "When do I start?" Her interest was genuine, but her hands which had once again started to wander threatened to distract them both.

"I have men on the inside, the job opened up last week. We'll send the application tomorrow, see what we can do in terms of the process after that. It could be as soon as two weeks." As he talked, Jim's breath steadily picked up. But upon seeing the worry cloud her eyes, he stopped himself.

"And it's just a receptionist, nothing-"

"Just sit there and look pretty." Jim removed himself from her and forced her to turn until her eyes were being pierced by his. "Remember how you did for me? Sit and look pretty for him, and keep your eyes and ears open."

"It sounds...risky. It isn't some small time Mister who wants a hand. It's...it's...The Country." Moriarty had yet to expand what exactly 'the government' meant. She knew it meant something big but like most things he had chosen to keep his cards close to his chest. This time though, Katherine wished he hadn't for her head was creating all sorts of absurd ideas on what this man was.

"I can't promise to have eyes on you 24/7. But it will be fine. They won't have a clue what's going on under their nose." He bobbed her nose with his finger in time and smiled. Katherine however, wouldn't smile, she could only wonder.

"What's your obsession? Why's he so important."

"It's not that he's important. It's that he's a threat." The autumn sky was clear, allowing the moonlight to shine through where they'd left the balcony curtains drawn open. The soft light highlighted only half Jim's face. Eyes like a shark...she always joked to herself that if the devil had a face it would he his. Even when he smiled, it was always sinister, always daring. "A rival. And you know I don't play well with those who stand in my way."

"Well if it's like all the others, they'll wish they hadn't tried." Katherine matched his smile and locked her fingers with his. "The Holmes Brothers. They'll not know what's coming."

That name. First heard months ago in a light passing. He had solved some small case and it had been published in a small local London newspaper. Nothing special, 5th page, 400 words. But Moriarty had taken too it after being asked by a client if 'it could be traced, like that story in the paper?'. After a little research, Jim had found more. None of them any bigger than the first but they were there, and they were steadily growing.

Sherlock Holmes. Consulting Detective. Growing pain her her backside. She didn't even know what he looked like. Probably some blundering brute. Cocky, too wealthy for his own good, slimy and centred only around making everyone his 'pal'. In her mind, she could see him. Fat, balding, laughing with brother as they both wore ill fitting suits. Their voices an appalling cockney song. Every aspect of it scratched at her surface, week by week creating a larger unreadable itch. And she wasn't even working for one of them yet.

The temptation to return to work was obviously dying, since he settled more into the sheets, pulled her even closer and shut his eyes. With his nose buried in her hair, his last words were mumbled. "They won't...I can't wait to see the look on their face." He didn't say anymore than that before pushing his face into the crook of her neck, calling an end to their conversation.

She didn't sleep until the early hours of the morning, unable to shake the feeling something was coming. Something much bigger than they'd dealt with ever before.


	2. Chapter 2

Katherine wore her best formal workwear, a Vivienne Westwood black knee length dress with a swooping neck line. The shoulders were pointed and the quality of the sticking made her sit taller. The sleeves ended just past her shoulders and once paired with six inch, red souled shoes, she looked like she too herself could run the Government.

She'd been sat in the small foyer for about half an hour. She held a small file of all her back story in her hand. Passport, birth certificate, copy of her CV, marriage certificate...everything. She was the wife of a David Coleman, a head of a successful insurance business. Apart from the name it wasn't too far from the truth, and that was was tickled him more. Jim loved how close he was getting to them under such little protection. But it was that part which had Katherine worried. There were no guards, no snipers, no eyes on her for the first time in almost three years. She felt vulnerable and he was pushing her right into the arms of the enemy. When he told her he was going to make her his eyes and ears...she didn't for one second thin it would be to keep himself safe. But that's all it seemed to be.

No one could identify him. No one knew his voice, his face, his gender was even questionable. But her? She was the first line.

Her eyes looked around at the dark wood and patterned wallpaper. It was much different to the James Bond MI5 set up she'd imagined. It had all been sterilised metal and locked door. Where she sat now, looked better fitted to a high class gentleman's club.

"Miss Austin?" An older woman entered through a door to Katherine's right and smiled. It was only her in the room. "Please follow me." There was no small talk after Katherine raised out of her seat and followed the official looking woman though a maze of corridors. Their path only stopped when Katherine thought it was impossible for it to go on any longer. They entered a small room, seemingly an office. "Take a seat." It was a plain empty desk, but the woman gestured to a seat opposite to hers. "My name is Margaret Waller, I'm the head of communications for Mr Holmes."

"Nice to meet you." Katherine's voice was airy but confident. She didn't play the little innocent for this one. She had to play the confident, clued up, woman who needed this career. She wasn't going the blunder about and babble but she would be realistic.

"If it is alright, we will make a start straight away. Things are very busy around here at the moment." Katherine only nodded for the woman to go on while trying to decipher the pages spread in front of her. "Okay, so, tell me a bit about yourself, why you applied for the position? And what you think you could bring to the job?"

"Okay." Releasing a deep breath, Katherine tried to channel her old persona and every interview she had experienced. "Well, I'm 30 years old, I'm currently unemployed after leaving my job as a receptionist for small law claims business. My interests lie in reading, travelling, erm...I applied for the position mainly because I've been in simpler roles for the past 11 years and I know what I am doing. Although I feel, it will be much more interesting and bring me so much more of a sense of purpose, given the employer." She finished with a smile and took a second to think as the Margaret caught up on her note taking. "I can bring good planning skills, erm, time management, communication, professionalism. I genuinely consider myself to be a strong candidate who would excel and make Mr Holmes work life a lot easier."

"Good, very good." There was a moments silent, where only her pen scratched the surface of the stationary paper. The. Ms Waller started trading looks between the CV and Katherine. "It states hear, you speak four languages fluently, as well as English. Do you care to explain why this is?"

"As I said, a strong interest in travel and communication." It had been an unexpected question. In truth, it was because it had been forced upon her. Granted it had come in useful, the man had an unrealistic amount of clients in South America and Russia. "It's also been useful for the business and people I've worked for in the past." The hardest lies to read were those wrapped in a truth.

"And in your past employment, was there ever any trouble which caused you to cease the contract?" She'd made up six past jobs, around the average for a normal woman of her age and in the field of receptionists.

"No, none at all. I moved recently and my old job was out of the way. Before that, I got a better offer."

Over the past two years, she had learnt a lot. The average working age of a construction worker. The highest pension payout for a woman who had been a teacher all her life and retired at 68. The percentage of men who had an affair, inside and outside of marriage, if they grew up in a working class background and earned more that 25k a year. She knew almost everything about identities, what was normal, what was expected. She could create a life so detailed, those who adopted them even thought it was the truth. Schools. Businesses. Families. Katherine had made it her specialty in such a short amount of time, it was her trademark in Moriarty's web of contacts. She had never disappointed, and a one for herself was not about to be the first.

The questions continued, all of which Katherine had practically rehearsed and planned answers for. There were about twenty in total; scenario and experience related. But it was difficult. This was new to her, normally she just past over the information, she didn't have to play the part. Lucy was gone, she had become Katherine, that wasn't acting. This was.

"Okay, I think that is all. There's just one final form I must ask you to fill in." Katherine quirked a brow and watched closely as Margaret slid a pile of about five papers from underneath her things.

"What is this for?" The younger woman asked, taking the heavily printed sheets in her hand. At first glance, they seemed a lot like the first set of application forms she had gone through so thoroughly with Jim. But then she saw the extra details, the declaration of criminal convictions, the finger print, DNA and blood sample terms and appointment times.

"Just a simple clearance form, it is required for all candidates." Ms Waller must have seen the look of hesitation on Katherine's face as she gave a small chuckle and stood, removing her small reading glasses. "If I have a penny for every time I'd seen that reaction." Katherine looked up, eyes narrowed curiously. "The blood test...and DNA admittedly. But it's the regulations of working here. We will run it through our systems to make sure your record is clear and to make sure everything checks out. It's also so we have it all on record." Katherine nodded and plastered on a small smile of understanding. This was past her experience...over the years, identities had never stemmed as far as blood. Fingerprints...doable...for others. "Please fill what you can out and post it to the address stated. The appointments are compulsory, if you don't attend your name will be withdrawn."

"No problem, they all look fine." Katherine tucked the papers in with all the others she had brought along with her. "Thank you." Ms Waller thankfully showed her the way back through the labyrinth, guiding her back towards the reception.

"You will here from someone in the next three weeks, possibly longer depending on the results." The woman spoke in reference to the samples. "It was nice meeting you Mrs Austin." Katherine replied with a similar greeting and then never looked back as she left the building.

The car was due to be there waiting, two streets away. Black Bentley, regular driver. Regular number plate. Jim had ensured her. Her pace quickened as she walked through the busy streets. She was in the centre of London, alone for the first time in 2 years. She never even drove alone, never mind stood out in the open. This could have been the opportunity they had been waiting for. If there was a 'they'. Jim had assured her they were all gone, they were taken care of. But...there were always others. There would always be others.

That's why, after walking the length of the street twice, she started to panic. There was no car. Just taxi's and people pushing passed her on the crammed pavement.

Katherine pulled the phone from her pocket and dialled the only number, apart from Jim's, she knew off by heart. They didn't disappoint and answered within seconds.

"Sebastian. Where are you? The cars not here." Katherine spoke before they could.

"With Jim. We're on Warwick Way." Sebastian answered quickly. That was what? Twenty minutes away from here, thirty to 40 with traffic. In the background she could here the unmistakable sound of Jim muttering something. "There's been no check ins. They should be close."

Katherine stuttered with nervous laughter. "Expect a call if they don't show."

"Roger that." She hung up the call and dropped it back into the pocket of her coat.

Within the next couple of minutes, the recognisable shape of the black town car swung around the corner. Katherine breathed a sigh of relief, unable to stand still on the spot until the car stopped dead in front of her and she dropped into the back seat.

"You are late." She spat out, unintentionally harsh. The car door slammed shut and her head fell back against the head rest as she breathed deeply.

"My apologies Ma'am." Her personal driver only spoke when Katherine reopened her eyes, rolling her head so she was able to look out the window. "Any stops or straight home?"

"Home please...London is far too busy to deal with today." George gave a small smirk which she caught in the rear view mirror. He was nice, she liked him, she couldn't hold a grudge against him. He knew where he stood and what his job was but he wasn't a cold faced soldier like the others. He reminded her of an older Sebastian...if Sebastian wasn't a cold hearted killer.

Her phone beeped in her pocked, pulling Katherine out of her thoughts. The words on the screen made her almost laugh out loud.

New case. See details attached.

JM.

Sometimes it felt so good to know he cared.

After getting home, Katherine changed into her exercise gear and headed down into the basement to the gym. It was like her own personal one, fit with a pool and everything. She even had her own personal trainer...well...she had Sebastian when he wasn't otherwise occupied.

She needed to get her mind off something other than the end of that interview. He head had been spinning for the past couple of hours, wondering how on earth she could fake a planned blood sample. F she gave her own, and it was traced as Lucy...there was no doubt the government alarms would sound, following shortly by those of Scotland Yard.

With a final exhale, Katherine pushed the complex situation out of her head and jumped onto the treadmill.

She had never been one for working out until she saw the body it gave her. Muscle definition, a gap between her thighs, her call or bones protruding. It was what Jim was most proud of, Katherine thought. It kept her appeal up and made people want to be around her. That's what he told her.

She didn't know how long she was down there, for minutes on end she'd close her eyes and just listen to the rhythm of her own jogging. It felt like she'd gone for miles. But when she opened her eyes one time, Katherine almost broke her ankle as she stumbled. At the bottom of the stairs leading down to the gym, stood Sebastian. He was watching her closely with a small smile which grew with the sight of her fright.

"I thought I'd find you down hear." He mutter with a smirk, pushing himself forward. As always, he was dressed in his black combats with a gun pushed down the from of his pants. Heavy boots and a jacket which was almost too big for even his athletic build. Katherine didn't say anything as she stopped the machine and took several large gulps of water. "Boss wants you." Once again she was silent, dabbing the sweat from her chest with a towel. But she nodded at him, smiling ever so gently. He has known the girl for long enough now to know when something was wrong. "How did it go?"

Seb knew he had been right, when her brow creased and her steps towards him were too...casual for her. She swung instead of placing her feet down, her head rolled...she didn't care about her appearance, she was too busy focusing on something bigger. "Good. I think. But we might have a problem." Katherine looked up, into the snipers eyes and winced.

"Which is?"

"They want a blood sample. Taken by their own doctors." No one thought this would be easy. Jim knew that certain hurdles would need to be tackled. Sebastian knew it was dangerous sending her in there alone, undercover. Katherine...well, Katherine just did as she was told. But she knew it wasn't going to be an easy cruise. No more sauntering the streets with bodyguards and meeting the rich and powerful for brunch dates, she was an agent now practically. Jim's puppet on a string.

"Jim is in his office." Sebastian nodded behind him with his own frown. This wasn't something she needed to discuss with him.

However, Katherine smiled as she went to walk past him. "It doesn't settle me that even you are stumped."

"I'm a sniper, not a nurse." It was a casual quip, not an unusual for Sebastian to do around her. But never when Jim was near by, that she never seemed to notice. Katherine didn't give anything in reply, but as he watched her walk away, he felt the overwhelming need to call out, to stop her. "Before you go..."

She stopped on the fourth step and turned. She was smiling at him, the smile not many others saw these days. Everyone else saw the fake one, the rehearsed one. The smile that spoke 'I am better than you' than 'I am happy'. But he'd seen it from the beginning, around him, Katherine had always strived to prove herself.

"Yes?"

At least...that's what he saw. That was the story he told himself. "...Nothing. It doesn't matter." Others did see her smile. George, Tina, Jim...they all saw it everyday. Just like him.

"Sebastian?" Katherine questioned, noticing his strange hesitation. It wasn't like him. Just like it wasn't like him to avoid her eye contact.

"This is more important, and boss is waiting." She didn't question him again and left, jogging up the last few steps. Sebastian groaned as soon as the door at the top of the stairs slammed shut behind her, and he ran a hand over his eyes. After a moment to himself, he left the same way, purposefully avoiding the path through the house which led by the door to Jim's office. The door which she had just closed.

"You summoned me?" Katherine smiled easily, her breath finally having caught up with her. She learn back on the door and watched Jim stand from his desk, locking eyes on her. But as he walked to her, the quicker his pace got and before she knew it, she was pinned between himself and the door. Her wrist pinned above her with one hand as his other ruthlessly explored her exposed body. Jim's lips were on her neck, her lips, her collar. Parts of him seemed to be everywhere.

Moriarty picked her up with her legs wrapped around his waist. His hips pushed into hers almost painfully. But he felt her clinging too him, he felt how much she waned it ever if it was sudden. He needed that, he needed to feel that. That raw want and need from her. Jim needed to see it through more than her words sometimes.

After a few minutes, he slowed his kisses and lowered her to the ground. Her breath was once again fastened, but so was his. Her hair had been pulled from its high ponytail and Jim's needed to be put back into place with a swoop of Katherine's fingers. She started to chuckle, a wide smile painted across her lips before she gave him one final peck.

"That was unexpected." To her surprise, he joined in. Lightly laughing as he kept her held close, Jim pushed the hair out of her face and kissed the apple of her cheek.

"You've been exercising." Jim pointed out, finally pulling his hands from her and walking back to his desk. "You only do that when you're angry...or troubled." Jim sat, his left brow raised and grinned teasingly. If she didn't know better, she'd think he got off more on her stress than her kisses. "What is it, pumpkin?"

Katherine laughed aloud then, slowly walking forwards to take the seat opposite his desk. "Have you been drugged?"

"I'm in a good mood." He certainly was. First that...attack, for lack of a better word and now pet names. What was next? Long weekends away in a country cottage. She couldn't dwell on it though, whatever had him in a good mood could wait.

"Something's come up, I need your help." Katherine amusement finally ended as Jim looked up at her, curious. "They asked for a blood sample and a DNA sample...and fingerprints. They've arranged appointments, all for next week with their own Doctors."

Jim frowned, but all the while he continued to sort through his own work. "They need this for the job?"

Katherine focused on the bookcases to her left and stood, venturing over to them. She couldn't sit still when she was thinking or when she was nervous. She had to keep herself busy. Her back turned on Moriarty but she nodded, knowing her was watching her. "Something about regulations. They need the sample to run through their systems, make sure everything checks out." Her fingertips played with a porcelain tiger he had acquired a few months back, during a week long trip in China. She hadn't accompanied him, she'd stayed home but still she wished he'd let her go. "Jim..." Her voice choked, but she felt his warmth on her back. To her surprise he had joined her, his hands going around her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder. "If they get my blood, I might as well walk into Scotland Yard with my hands up now."

"I know." He whispered in her ear. "I'll sort it out." He turned her in his arms and tucked her head under his chin. "We can have fingerprints forged, that's the easiest. I'll figure the other stuff out. I have some people on the inside."

"That deep on the inside?" His connections only went so far. Hands played with the buttons of her suit jacket, constantly unfastening and refastening them, keeping her hands busy.

He put a hand on each side of her face and forced her to look at him. "Darling, I have eyes and ears in places you couldn't even imagine."

Why was he being so calm? So nice? He'd had a lead on a client. Not only that but she had done brilliantly. The bug he planted on her had picked up everything. It was more for him than for her, Jim needed to know she could be totally on her own. He needed to hear for himself how far she'd come, how much he could trust her. And she didn't disappoint. On the drive home, he'd been positively itching to get his hands on her, for no other reason than because he simply wanted to. He wanted to feel her under his hands, taste her on his tongue. He'd made her, now he wanted to appreciate her.

Some doubted that he loved her truly. A few thought he was measly using her. And yes, there were times he did. He used her as a face and a voice so people couldn't get to him, an easy face for clients to pick out that was his name and never his. He used her to get into places he couldn't, Mr Holmes office for example. He used the vulnerability that remained in her to draw in the less confident clients. But that didn't mean he didn't love her. How could he not love her? She'd been so loyal to him from the start. She looked through everything he did and somehow still managed to put him on top, it was remarkable how her little mind worked. For she wasn't stupid, she wasn't boring, she was...his. All his.

"Go get cleaned up." Jim spoke all to suddenly, startling her. He felt her hands cling to him and smiled. "I'll give your good friend Mr Robson a call." He was a good acquaintance of Jim's had been since the business started by the sounds of it. Katherine had worked with him a few times at the start, learning how to forge passports, handwriting, holographic logos. He was good, stern, but good. "You've done well today. As a reward we should go out...for a walk. We'll take the dogs."

Something he seemed to say melted her worry, for Katherine choked on a laugh. "You can't handle them on your own. They run circles around you." She was right. Dogs trained to kill were obedient, until they saw a wild fox or even a field mouse.

"Then pick your favourite and we will take that one." With that, he ended there chat. Giving her a swift slap on the behind, Jim kissed her once and then sent her on her way. She wasn't even out the room before he dialled the number for Robson.

"Hello Patrick, its Jim. You remember my wife, Katherine? Well I need to call in a favour for her."


	3. Chapter 3

"This will never work." Positivity was not on her side today. She'd woken up tired and in a bad mood due to lack of sleep, her head pounding and her throat scratching. Jim had tried to lighten her mood with the gift of a new necklace. A delicate silver necklace with a thin 'K pendant. It had made her smile...it was sweet and from Jim of course it made her smile. But it didn't do the trick of shaking her nerves.

"It won't if you keep telling yourself it won't." Patrick Robson sat to her right on a small wooden chair, delicately hot glue gunning the moulded prints to her finger tips. The small stickers were made out of thin silicone, nearly invisible to the human eye. Totally unrecognisable to someone not looking for them. It hurt like hell having them applied. The hot gun oozing like molten lava onto her skin, it would most likely do more damage than she thought but it beat going to prison.

"Are you almost done?" Moriarty pushed from a few feet away. If Katherine was going to be on time for the appointment they had to leave soon and this was a painstakingly slow process. But the only other option was to burn Katherine's finger prints off and not only did she not fancy that, but it would raise more questions than it solved.

"Two more. You are quite the tough cookie Ms Moriarty." The compliment caused a smirk to erupt onto her lips but it didn't stay for long as her thoughts turned to the other two, more difficult, tasks.

"What about the blood? And the DNA?"

"They're working on it as we speak. We should have word from Seb any minute now." Jim was the one to explain as he came and took the seat beside Katherine. He seemed to be watching Patrick closer, watching just how much glue he applied and how much hot skin burned away from her finger tips.

"So, they're just going to swap the samples? Just like that?" Her frown deepened as another print was applied and she took a deep breath, holding it until the steering pain turned into a dull aching itch.

"Their own Doctors they trust. Their own Scientists they trust. Who they forget is the man who transports said sample from A to B." Moriarty talked with his hands, his words just as focused as his eyes were on her.

"So what is mine being replaced with?"

"I've set up a record in my database." Patrick picked up. "You won't be in their system yet, at least Rebecca won't be. They'll run it through the system, find nothing and it'll be placed under your name. Same goes for the DNA. Both samples belong to a 27 year old woman who died of terminal cancer 3 year ago, didn't lay a foot wrong in her life." So her DNA had no reason to be on file anywhere, whether it be the Metropolitan Police or MI6. She had to admit it was a good plan, but she was still nervous. Didn't the government had face recognition on building now. She was wanted. What if they picked her up? What if someone realised it was her? She was it way over her head here.

"And that will work? This isn't a simple Saturday job at the local corner shop." Her worried got the best of her. Katherine could see Moriarty had started throwing her warning looks. She had to get a grip of herself. No meltdowns. No stress. She would be the same woman she was every day, just with a different name.

"I have been in this job for the best part of 40 years Mrs Moriarty. You know how many times I have been found out?" He looked up from her hands just long enough to watch her nod her head. There was a reason the man was still alive and kicking. He was the best. "It will work."

"You must forgive my wife. She can be skittish in new circumstances." Moriarty snarled.

There was no attempt to hid his distaste regarding her behaviour. If she didn't book up her ideas she was going to pay tonight. There would be no prizes or rewards, just a very dark room and a harsh word or two.

"Jim, if every woman were like your wife. Men would have been abolished centuries ago." She had to hide a smirk then, upon hearing her husband ally stick up for already knew it would drive Jim wild. And it also made her ego perk up.

"Oh Patrick you're positively charming." With her free hand which had been through all the suffering, she patted Jim's knee. "You could learn a thing or two from him darling." Jim sneered at her in a way that was both endearing and sinister.

"Oh does it burn. I hope the needle they drain you with isn't too big." He stood as she laughed and answered his mobile which had started to jingle. "Hello...okay good...hurry up, we have to leave in ten."

It was on.

* * *

They had called her into the doctors office from the waiting room half an hour ago. Twenty minutes ago they had started with 'the hardest part' which involved sticking a two inch needle into her veins. It was funny, she was all for mopping up the blood of others, but getting some sucked out of herself was just...wrong. It made her feet ache and her whole body squirm. Thankfully it was over with soon enough and, a few minutes later they had swabbed the inside of her cheek.

That was 10 minutes ago.

Now, she sat alone in the empty doctors office awaiting...well she didn't know what honestly. The Doctor had excused himself to deliver the samples to the main office, but he'd never returned.

Katherine removed the small cotton pad she'd been holding to her arm and sighed. This was not her seen. She just wanted to get out of there a free woman. Plus, Jim had promised her a nice dinner out in London if she was a good girl for the whole day. Knowing he was waiting out in the car only a street away made her itch.

"Ms Austin?" The door opened and the ageing doctor finally returned, but he held a clipboard in hand and he was frowning. Her whole insides turned to ash, but miraculously, Katherine managed to smile up at him...through gritted teeth. "I's sorry that took some time, but we found an abnormality on your record." Her whole heart told her to stay quiet...just to let him finish. She may have sat rigid in the chair and a thin layer of sweat may have glossed her forehead but she looked calm. She kept her breathing level and her smile shy. "Seems you haven't had an appointment for three years, although it's good to see your in good health, the organisers of this insist on one being supplied. I took the liberty of assigning you to this practise."

"Oh...oh right." She had to stop herself from grinning, cackling like a mad women on the run at his admission. The silly old fool, such drama was not needed for a detail like that. "That is fine, thank you. I completely forgot."

"Most people do." The Doctor adjusted how his glasses sat before he chuckled and handed her a confirmation of attendance slip. "That's all for now. Results should be returned within 24 hours to you employer. If there's anything, they will be the ones to get in touch."

"Okay." She gave a smile and stood, hurriedly gathering her coat and purse from the floor. "Thank you very much." There wasn't much of an opportunity for the man to respond before she ran out of his office. No one else was given a second glance, Katherine simply focused her eyes on the path ahead and power walked until the centre was in the distance.

Just like he'd told her, the car was sat across the road. Parked up on the curb but all of the tinted windows made it just look like the ordinary empty car. She knew his eyes would be watching her as she approached though.

Sebastian was the one to get out the car and open her door for her. "Get me out of this hell hole Sebastian." She threw her purse into the middle seat and then sighed as the door was slammed behind her. In the seat new to her, Jim was already smirking and running his eyes over her form. He was rating her, surveying every emotion, every breath and every hair out of place. And, judging by his face, she was very amusing.

"Did it go well?" Receiving his attention didn't last long, and Jim turned back to typing on his phone.

"I...I believe so." Katherine stared at the innocent building a few meters away with a grimace. "I have no reason to believe they suspect something. I was very nice. Though they didn't offer me a lollipop."

"Oh sugarplum...do they not know who you are?" It made her smirk. Most people knew who she was now, at least the people in Jim's world did. She was a face that was forever growing in infamy and her reputation was fierce. Untouchable she may not yet have been, but Jim was driving her in that direction slowly. No royalty just rose above it all out of no where. You had to earn it. "Anyway, as promised, we have reservations."

The car set off, but it wasn't a long journey. They pulled up outside a fancy Thai Restaurant. Bouncers on the door, strict guest list, darkly lit and colour themes interior. That sort of place. It was the type of place men like Jim thrived. Only the best of the best could get a reservation and once inside it was so dark that anything could be discussed. Whereas in Katherine's opinion, the place provided enough of an atmosphere to even make Jim romantic and the wine and food was a good reward for having starved herself the past month.

They entered, were given their normal seat at the back of the restaurant. Secluded, away from the kitchen, away from the bar and with no surrounding tables. A bottle of white wine was brought to the table in an ice bucket and then they were left. Like every other time, it was only then that James spoke.

"You did a good job today. How's your fingers?" Katherine want to reply that they were still throbbing uncomfortably, but before that could happen her took her right wrist and overlooked each finger intricately.

"They could be better." Her breathing hitched when he prodded a more sensitive one and he smiled. Of course he smiled, taunting her was his best entertainment when they were alone. "What happened with the transferral?"

"It was a success." Jim shrugged casually, as if he had no doubts it would have went another way. "Now we just sit and wait for the call giving you the job, which they will do. Soon." There was no doubt in her mind that he was right. He was always right. He let her in more now these days than ever but things like this, getting his men into those hard to reach places, she didn't even want to know how he did it. It scared even Katherine, thinking about how far into it all he was.

"And then?"

"And then, you become my little spy." Under the table, Jim squeezed her knee and tickled the inside of her lower thing. But it didn't make her giddy, and it certainly didn't make her stress decrease any. "Stop worrying. You're safe."

Katherine gave a small smile and laid her hand onto of his, forcing his fingers to link with hers. Since their wedding, he was barely ever as doting as he had been that wonderful day. He showered her with gifts and seduced her and gave her everything she could ever want. But the little things, like how they walked along the beach entranced by each other. They were rare, extinct even, unless she led him down the path first.

Jim Moriarty may have protected her and played the part of a husband when needed. But there was still that doubt, even after almost two years. It would die out almost completely, but then he'd do something, something so little as look at her differently, which gave the flame a new life. There was no denying she loved him, after everything he'd done there was no way she could say she didn't. But after everything, all of Seb's reassurance and Jim's gestures, something made her feel as if she was just bred for this. To be his eyes in places he couldn't reach, a boulder he could hide behind.

But like every other time, when her thoughts became to complicated and too much to bare, she emptied her head. A simple smile covered all the possible betrayal there could be and she reached to kiss Jim's cheek. There was no point thinking, she wouldn't be able to change it either way. Besides, Jim always found a way to make her forget.

"I miss the beach." Katherine whispered as she leant back into her seat.

"Random."

She presented a small smile accompanied with a shrug. "It's been a while." Her eyes were turned down towards the menu but none of the words were being taken in. She was in one of those moods, where she just craved attention or...something. She wanted something or someone to do something wrong just so she could have a reason scowl and tut.

"What's wrong?" The Irish drawl was soft, tempting her in. But she still shook her head, taking a confident sip of her wine. "Yes there is...you've been...off."

"No I haven't." She couldn't let him know how much stress sending her into the government, was causing. She couldn't let him know her thoughts. She couldn't let him know much, but that had always been the same.

"You're in a mood. Something's different..." Her head raised then with a frown, as Moriarty stared at her while chewing on his lip. He looked dazed; eyes narrowed and head unsteady on his shoulders. She knew better than to speak, she'd wait for him. "It's not our anniversary is it?"

"No...that was last month..." Katherine stopped mid-thought and scoffed. How could he not remember? "You bought me that brooch, to go with the one from our wedding day."

"Of course." He had no shame. Jim openly gave an awkward grimace as his eyes widened and he avoided eye contact. Her face was a picture of pure fury. He hadn't even chose it had he? She should have known since it was left on her side of her bed before she woke. No doubt he had one of his cronies out getting it. "Sorry...oh come on." He jested her when Katherine removed his hand from her knee and sulked. "I've been a very busy man." Yeah, busy chasing Sherlock Homes and his family.

"It's nothing."

"Katherine. When I married you, do you know what that meant?" She shook her head yet again and Jim reached forward with his finger resting on the side of her temple. "It meant that whatever it is...going on in here. I can take it." Raising his brows, her shot her a pointed look that looked comical on him. "Talk to me?" The words were sang, only he had the charm to turn anything into a joke and not be offensive. At least to her.

"Just...all of this." Picking at the hot glue on her fingertips, she made a gesture to the harsh burns. "Just for one man I-"

"Katherine, we've talked about this." He interrupted her but this time she wasn't taking a short answer. She was going to stand her ground and even if it meant leaving here knowing she was in for a nasty treat at home, she would leave knowing the truth.

"Not properly...Everything else you let me in on. But this. All I get is 'he's a threat'. I need to know what is so important Jim. Please?" Sherlock bloody Holmes was not going to be this stranger anymore. Not if she was risking her life and her freedom sitting around his damn brother all day. If Jim didn't like it then tough but she was finding out. Today.

Something in her persona must have gave the message she was serious. Because he started to talk. It took a second, but soon, Moriarty had sank back into his seat, defeated.

"He's not like others Katherine. He has... ways about him." Eyes rolled like a child who'd lost a battle. But it lasted all of a minute before the darkness started to creep over him.

"Ways?"

He sucked his cheeks in and nodded ever so slowly...eyes glazing over. "If there was anyone able to get to us, get to me, it would be him. He isn't like the normal people. There's been stories lately, nothing big, but he's helping the police. He's able to see things ordinary people can't." All the time he talked, Katherine saw he was so deep in his own thoughts, she could have left the table and he wouldn't have even noticed. "If there was ever a man to get in my way..." Jim came back to the real world all too suddenly and looked at her, emotionless. "I'm not doing this for nothing."

"I didn't think you were." Katherine swallowed hard and licked her lips. "What makes him unordinary?" There was a small doubt at the back of her mind. A small voice nudging and telling her she didn't want to know. But it was the cowards voice, it had no place in Katherine's for-thinking.

"Sherlock Holmes...he's like me. He's just on the side of the Angels." Jim came back to life, falling back into the presence and locking eyes with Katherine. "Not like us. Where we are, we're going straight to hell." He smirked, an expression which for once turned her stomach. Something was off about him when Sherlock Holmes was the topic of conversation. It was like he was possessed, though with what she couldn't tell.

"Speak for yourself." A joke which barely made him laugh, but he did seem to relax and raised his eyebrows.

"I'm not the one going around intimidating infamously renowned men." That was all it took for the tension to be dropped. She was chuckling again and he was shuffling closer to her in their large booth.

"Under your command." Katherine spoke, raising her head to be able to meet his eyes now he towered above her.

"And I must say..." his finger ran underneath her chin, making it point up. Her lips were perky and he ignored the need to claim her, far to set on what else he had in mind. "Watching you make them sweat is sooo desirable. So you know what darling?" Her eyes were just about to slip shut, ready to accept pleasure, when his hand wrapped around her throat tight. The small squeak she gave was to die for, as was her instant quivering as his lips came to her ear. "Stop doubting me about Sherlock Holmes." There were a few seconds, when he just held her there, stopping her from taking a single breath. Her hands started to clutch his wrist and her heels dug into the floor. He didn't enjoy it, with Katherine he never enjoyed it. That's why he had to do it.

When he let go, the booth was instantly filled with the sound of her heavy gasping and coughing. "Good girl." Jim took a drink as he watched her recover and frowned. Once upon a time, he would have been filled with glee, watching her squirm and splutter. But now, it made his own gut clench. "Hey...hey...I'm sorry." He cooed, going back and regaining his closeness to her. He stroked her cheek and the palm of her hand. "I'm sorry." He kissed her shoulder, then the curve of her neck, then the corner of her mouth.

"Stop it." It was too hushed, he didn't take it seriously, and instead of pulling back, Jim nipped her earlobe.

"Darling." It was almost a purr. So smooth and deep it would have her melting in his arms under any other circumstance. "You did well today. Do not ruin it."

"You ruined it." Finding her voice, Katherine pulled her head away and scowled at him. "I don't doubt you Jim. But I do question you sometimes." He looked at her curiously, retreating just enough to be able to look at her face. "And right now, I'm questioning where I stand in your hierarchy."

She wasn't expecting him to do anything. So when Jim took her hand again and placed in on his chest, over his heart, she almost gawked at him.

"Right here." He didn't mean it. It was just his way of making up. "You listening? Right here." He brought her knuckles to his mouth and kissed all the way up her arm until he was covering her neck and arriving at her lips. "I'm sorry, you do make daddy proud. I promise." Jim could have killed her right then and there when he saw the look creep on to her face. It was that puppy look, the look she got when she wanted to hear those tree ever more meaningless words. "I love you, darling."

"I love you too, some of the time." Her smirk was repulsively delicious in that moment. Both of their movements became slow, deliberate and seductive. She was like a snake, and he a spider. Their heads twisting around, fighting to get a better look at the other as they each moved.

"You break my heart." Jim spat through his teeth, his hand coming to a rest on her hip.

"Hmm." Katherine leant forward, just until her lips hovered above his and she could see his eyes watching where her hands wondered. Unlucky for him, it was just to the knot of his tie. "You don't have a heart to break...sweetheart."


	4. Chapter 4

Katherine felt...anxious. In fact anxious wasn't even on her scale at the moment. Blind panic was the least she could describe. The longer she was in the car, the harder her heart beat against her rib cage. She felt an oncoming panic attack coupled with furious rage...though the latter was mainly targeted at the man sitting next to her.

Moriarty had been a dear and 'volunteered' to accompany her on the ride into London on her first day. For all the days to follow she was to take a separate car, she would not be seen with him in any of the areas surrounding her new place of work. She would not call him or speak of him. If in the off chance they asked her about a husband, she was to answer the bare minimum and lie. Well...loosely lie.

But ever since they set off from the house, Jim's concentration had been fully trained on his phone. Apart from the odd couple of sentences however, in which he would tell her what not to do. Though she could forgive him this time. Since the work, for once, was not on Sherlock Holmes.

"We're here." Sebastian delivered the dreaded news as he pulled them to a stop two streets away from the building. She couldn't be seen getting out a certain car by anyone.

Jim looked up and then looked at her. She was like a poor little deer caught in headlights bless her. So frightened and nervous. He'd barely seen her like that since she was a Miss Lucy Scott. The poor thing was going to be eaten alive inside the walls of the government if she didn't book her ideas up.

"Have a good first day." He was overly chipped, singing at her before he leant over her to open her car door. It earned him a glare, as well as a nasty knock to the knee as she swung her bag 'accidentally' too hard onto her shoulder. "Try not to bully any of the other children."

Katherine muttered a response under her breath. "Try not to kill anyone."

"Oh now, you know I can't promise." Just as she made a move to get out the car, Jim caught her wrist and pulled her back against him. Make up was perfect, not a hair out of place. She was perfect to play the part of loyal government secretary. "Make daddy proud." This time, it wasn't a joke and the kiss she received felt honest, if not a little earned.

As much as she wanted to plant her own on him, Katherine climbed out of the car and slammed the door. She'd barely turned her back when it bowled away, leaving her on the busy London street alone. This time, there definitely were no eyes on her. There was no back up. Just her and a five minute walk to what was basically a butterfly trap. Once inside she was safe, secure, but there was every chance that she would never get out.

The walk was quick, or as quick as she could make it in six inch heels. Endless pushing through rush hour crowds came to a stop just before the steps of the large, though be it subtle building. It wasn't where she had been interviewed. No, this was much more...normal. It was like a house. A fancy upmarket townhouse.

Her steps as she walked inside we deliberate, taking extra care not to make a sound. The air was too still. There was barely anyone about, apart from a few men who she could see sat through in an adjoining room. The silence could be cut with a knife.

"May I help you?" The sudden voice to her left made her jump. An older woman, maybe in her late flurries stood just at the foot of a staircase. She was impeccably dressed, not so much as Katherine obviously, but she had made an effort.

"Good Morning, my name is Rebecca Austin. I'm Mr Holmes new receptionist. Though I'm not sure I'm in the right place." A sign of instant recognition appeared in her face and the woman seemed to jump to life.

"Of course, he is expecting you. Welcome to the Diogenes Club." A club? Like a social club, club? She walked forward to stand just in front of Katherine and then gestured for her to follow. "Do you know where your going?" She didn't need to answer, the look of hesitation on Katherine's face was enough. "No worries.. Please, follow me." Katherine smiled lightly, but her concentration was mainly focussed on the surroundings.

The walls were like something out of a Victorian dollhouse. All moody, patterned wallpaper and ivory statues. The alcoves in the walls were practically more beautiful than some of her jewellery. The Diogenes Club. She'd never heard of it, but judging by what she was seeing, she guessed it was one of those 'well to do places'. The likes of which were only known about b the Prime Minister himself and selected associates. They probably sat around all day, drinking port and eating grapes and cheese. Every chair looked like it was made out of velvet, either red or emerald in colour, and all the furniture was carved from rich, dark wood. She felt...too young for the place in all honesty, but overall too stylish. The feel of the place made her want to don a high neck jumper.

Not before long, the woman opened unlocked a door and opened it, revealing a dark concrete staircase leading down to the basement level.

"My name is Francis by the way." Finally she spoke, looking back over her shoulder and smiling reassuringly. To her, Katherine looked exactly like the sort of woman Mycroft would choose to surround himself with. Tall, thin, pretty, young. Probably no real sense when it came to the world they lived in, but as long as they could sit, smile and type... " If you need anything while your settling in, my number is the first in your phones speed dial."

"Thank you." Katherine muttered, she had caught on to Francis's judging eyes. She also noticed the disapproving minuscule turn of her lips. Some people were just too obvious. And jealous.

The rest of the walk was short once they reached the bottom of the stairs. A couple more locked door, the last of which looked like it had previously belonged to a bank. But then she was led into a small room with only one adjoining door and where the only natural light was from small grate windows, parallel to the pavement above. It was mostly decorated in deep maroon, book shelved and painting filling all of the available wall space. Then on either side, there was a desk. Both identically symmetrical, down to the placement of the PC and the filing cabinets. Katherine felt like she'd stepped into the shining.

"This is your desk. This other one belongs to Sandra, she is Mr Holmes personal assistant." It was nice to know she wouldn't be the only one trapped down in the cellar. Although, it was also an inconvenience. It meant there was another person to constantly keep the act up for. Francis gestured to the one on the left and waited for Katherine to walk around, behind the desk before going on. "I am mainly stationed front of house. Mr Holmes will know you are here."

The politeness or social capacity for the day had obviously ran out as Francis pretty much ran from the room, leaving her alone. Nothing else said and no further information given. Katherine was just left, in the foreign room with the knowledge than a man may or may not be behind that other door. But no matter where he was, he knew she was there.

She decided she may as well try to introduce herself. It seemed a better use of her time than sitting there like a brain dead lemon. Besides, she was curious as to exactly who this man was. What he looked like, how he dressed, how he talked. Over the weeks, her brain had formed the image of a man who had everything. Smart Westwood suits and shining shoes. Expensive watches and full well cut hair. Everything would have its place, he'd be fit and would keep up appearances. Young, bordering on middle aged. Think John Hamm and that was sort of the level she was expecting.

After dropping her bag onto the desk and draping her coat over the hook nearby, she cautiously walked to the dark wood door and knocked. There was a hum in reply, so she opened it and stepped through, ever so slowly.

It was not what she was expecting.

He was well dressed, yes. The man seemed to take care of himself, indeed. But Mycroft Holmes was less successful stock broker and more...well...seedy government folk. She should've known. Though, she would not judge yet, since she could barely see all of him in the darkness he resided in. Just one lamp aided his reading, the rest flooded weakly in though the prison like grate in the ceiling.

When he failed to acknowledge her, Katherine cleared her throat. "Mr Holmes? I'm-"

"Rebecca...yes. Take a seat." Upon interrupting her, Mycroft looked up and gave a fake smile, it looked painful for him to even contort his face in such a way. But she did as she was asked and sat in one of the cold metal chairs opposite him.

Unlike her own office, everything looked cold. The grey sucked any life out of the room, and the mirrors on either side just made it..tomb like. This wasn't an office, it was a cell.

"I trust you are suitable for the job, given your past." She was startled when he spoke, given the elongated silence. But Katherine sharply nodded and Mr Holmes went back to his paper. "There are instructions on your desk. If I need you, I will call. Does that make sense?"

She was shocked. No, gob smacked was much more appropriate. He spoke to her like she was a spare part, a piece of meat with nothing more for brains than potatoes. He spoke to her like Jim dared to sometimes. What irritated her most about it was she wasn't allowed to bite back.

"Yes. Perfect."

"I am not expecting any visitors, if I somehow do get any please escort them out." She could barely find her own way out, never-mind guide someone else. Katherine's eyes very nearly rolled back into her sockets with irritation, but she stopped herself and smiled again, wider and even faker than he did.

"Of course...Anything else?"

"No, you may go." Without another word, Katherine stood and left the office. Though she was oblivious to Mycroft's eyes which had lifted to deduce her as she left.

Educated. Married. No children yet.

As soon as the door shut, intersecting their company, she gave a long sigh of relief. It's a shame that it wasn't until afterwards, she realised the other desk was now occupied.

"Don't worry, he's always like that. With everyone." Awkward. It was awkward. With a nervous laugh, Katherine slapped her hands against her sides and shrugged. She was already fucked, five minutes in and she was screwed. At least she thought she was, until the girl laughed and lifted her hand to give a small, polite wave. "Sandra."

"Rebecca." Katherine walked hastily to her desk, shortly finding the long list of mind numbing lay boring activities listed on the leather note pad by her computers keyboard. "He seems, nice." Sandra gave a smile in a reply that didn't seem like it was dishonest, then again afterward she simply turned back towards her computer in silence.

She'd kill Jim when she got home. Working for the government was one thing, but working for a stuck up, unsociable, disrespectful piece of English meat was something else.

* * *

"You cannot send me back to work there, it's a hell hole. The centre of British Intelligence is a...a..."

"Snob?" Stopping mid sentence and mid pace, Katherine slammed her hands down by her sides like a spoilt child. Jim wouldn't have been surprised if she'd stamped her bare, freshly un-heeled foot. Wasn't she just adorable?

"Yes!" With a sharp shriek, she stormed over to Jim's desk and perked at the navy corner. The woven material of her skirt looked like a rug and aged her about 20 years, but it strangely suited this new persona of hers. The curve of her hips wasn't hidden and e thick belt around her waist made her appear even slimmer than she already was. "A boring, egotistical...snob." Her arms crossed in a huff and with a pet lip, she looked at Jim from under her lashes. "Even working for you wasn't that bad."

As much as he wanted to laugh at her, he simply ignored her presence and hummed under his breath. "You still work for me."

"Don't remind me." Oh she was going to get on his nerves if she continued to remain in this ridiculous mood. Sebastian had already complained about receiving an earful on the way home, Jim had hoped she had enough sense to not continue it in his presence. Apparently not. However, he couldn't resist the urge to wind her up further, maybe it would make her fettle heated enough to leave him alone.

"It's only until we have enough information on them." He watched her from the corner of his eye, smirking as he carried on. "A few months, a year tops." Like a charm, her face fell into despair.

"A year!" It took a lot of effort for her to hold her tongue, and not smash the marble based desk lamp over his head. "You better be joking Mr Moriarty."

"Just until we know more." Katherine kicked his leg, forcing his to pay her attention. With an exaggerated groan, he pushed his chair closer and allowed her to slip onto his knee.

She was going to try and soften him up. He always knew when it was coming. It had only taken him a month into their marriage to learn the signs. First she'd get close, then she'd play with his tie. Then, she'd do whatever it took to make him submit to her, even for a minute. "What do you need?" Her purr was next to his ear as her hands played with his belt. He had to admit, it wasn't the seducing or the playing, it was the sheer confidence that always led her to win.

"Everything." Moriarty sat back, giving her more room to work with, and sighed. "Anything. Something we can use. Anything we can learn from." Her eyes flicked to look past him, out of the windows behind his desk and across the vast fields of his estate. She could run and run and still be on his turf. In the very distance, the lights of the London outskirts could be seen at night. All of a sudden, the heat was gone from her eyes. "What is it? You're thinking...I know that face."

She came back to the real world, face softened and mind empty. She hadn't been thinking of anything, but she did have questions...ones she knew he would hate.

"I just...concerned. What if one of your clients sees me?"

"There are people out there Katherine. People who want to destroy me, who want to burn down everything I've built." He was t going to sugar coat it for her. "They want to take all this away." Rubbing his hands down the outline of her figure, she was almost purring in his lap. "I need to make sure I don't let that happen. And to do that, I need to know everything. That's what your helping me do. You're protecting us."

Katherine wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his head down so there foreheads rested against each other. For a moment, she simply sat there listening to the pattern of his breathing and the beating of Jim's heart. She could always tell what mood he was in by the human behaviours he couldn't otherwise control or manipulate. The heart didn't lie.

"Jim." She whispered, hearing him hum in response. "I think we should go somewhere, just the two of us. Get away from everything." All the seriousness which had clouded them for months. The paperwork, the meeting and the fancy dinners. They should just ditch it all and spend a week together on the sand.

"I don't think now is the best time darling."

"I meant when it is the right time." Her hand pulled the knot of his tie loose and it allowed her freedom to undo the top buttons. Slipping her hand inside to caress his chest, her lips hovered dangerously close to his neck. "I feel like I never see you these days."

There it was, just what she was waiting for. The sign of truth. Jim's heart sped up, she felt in under her hand and through his pulse by her mouth. It was only by the smallest amount but it happened. It should have made her smile but it did quite the opposite. Knowing your husband loved you was so normal, it was just too ordinary for Jim. It was far too human to tell her such, far too boring to show it more than he desperately needed to. She wished he could just listen to himself. But he wouldn't.

"Don't be boring Katherine." He pushed her from his knee then, shooing her away like a pet dog. The discussion was over, she'd ruined her own attempt at playing him. He was done. "Have someone run you a bath or something, you smell like old men."

Just like that, her mood returned and she left the office with heavy shoulders. She wouldn't see him again until tea time.

* * *

 **I was feeling extra Sherlocky when writing this so I put in a little Easter egg. Maybe it's too obvious, maybe it's too subtle... PM me if you think you see it or leave a review and give a hint!**


	5. Chapter 5

Two months. Two months had ticked by. And she meant ticked. Every morning was a chore, getting ready was a chore, the drive to London was a chore! Nine hours a day, 5 days a week, she had to sit in what resembled a Edwardian's drawing room developing Vitamin D deficiency due to the lack of sunlight. She was at her wits end. Ever Moriarty was having seconds thoughts and considering pulling her out of the job. One, because Mycroft barely showed himself and when he did it was minimal. Most of his conversation was directed at Sandra, Katherine merely delivered the mail and organised his lunch. And two, because...he just could handle her endless complaining anymore. He went to bed listening to her dithering babble and woke with a headache. If nothing developed soon she was being removed, her her own safety.

It had not been all bad for the past week however. It was one week until Christmas so she'd been spending most of her time 'at work' online shopping, instead of typing up telegrams for Lord Holmes while he dinned out of office. Of course the majority of the shopping was for herself, but that's still classed as Christmas shopping.

On this particular afternoon, he was out and about town on confidential government business with Sandra in tow, leaving her all on her lonesome. Her lovely, peaceful, lonesome.

So far she'd found a lovely pair of Christian Louboutin's to do with a gorgeous Oscar De La Renta gown. It would come in perfect for the next dinner Jim dragged her to. She had ate her chicken salad without interruption and was about to begin browsing Alexander McQueen's new collection of boots. Unfortunately, one individual chose to disturb her peace.

The moment the door opened, she jumped and expected to have to greet Mr Holmes. But that wasn't who presented themselves. In fact no one presented themselves. He simply walked in quite abruptly and only spoke once he was already past her desk.

"Is he in?" Messy brunette curls, that's all she managed to catch due to only catching the back of his head. Tall...taller than Mycroft. Skinny...er than Mr Holmes. But he did had that same stiff walk. Government man. She almost wanted to weep.

"Excuse me?" The man barely made it to the door of Mycroft's office when he turned around, finally allowing her to get a look at his face.

"Mycroft. Is he in?" Young...kind of. He had one of those faces to which a certain age couldn't be applied. Light eyes, clean shaven. Katherine hid a frown behind a amused, open mouthed smile and went to speak. But he was too quick. "Of course he's not. You haven't left your desk in almost an hour and you're posture raised two inches when I entered...where is he?"

What...what had just happened?

He spoke so quick she was practically tripping trying to keep up. He barely looked at her but his eyes moved to different parts of the room like a bird of prey, is hand accompanying his observations. Who...Oh...Of course.

"Sorry?" The smile which came to her then was a one of pure success. If she was write, she would finally get a reward off the back of this stupid job.

"Mycroft Holmes. Your boss. Where is he?" He was already agitated by her. Twisting his face and violently throwing his arms about. He was like a child.

Katherine went to speak again once he had quiet ended down, but just like the time before she was barely able to make a squeak. "I-"

"The other one isn't here. So he must be driving." The man pointed to the desk opposite hers and then pulled a phone out the pocket of his long overcoat.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" She finally managed to get a full sentence out due to him being distracted, typing out a message on his phone. What was even more shocking was he answered almost immediately.

"Sherlock Holmes."

Bingo.

He said it so easily, so casually, just the same as anyone would say a name. And yet he had no idea of what the consequences would be. Something changed in Katherine then. She sat talked and her smile turned into its more natural sinister smirk. So this was the man her husband had been lusting after for so many months. The one and only. She had to admit, upon first sight she was disappointed. He was nothing like she imaged, he was even more disappointing than his brother.

"Oh, right...nice to meet you. I'm-"

"Don't care." Eyes widened, of course he registered her offence but didn't truly consider it. She was the new one. Hadn't worked there any longer than two month. It wasn't her first job. She didn't care about it and spent most of her time procrastinating. She would be gone in a few month anyway judging by her posture. All from one look. She was not worth his time.

"He's out at a meeting." Katherine openly scowled at him and turned back to her PC. "I will let him know you stopped by." It was bittersweet. He should have cared, it would do him the world of good to care. But she was glad he kept his head down as he started to walk out the room. The less of her he remembered the better.

"Do tell him I'll be back later." And with that he left. A meeting totalling less than five minutes had been exactly what she had been sat here for. And just when she was close to convincing Jim to receive her...typical.

Without hesitation, Katherine reached into her desk draw and texted the number she knew most off by heart. They were smart, neither she or Jim kept contacts save. The only people they needed to call were memorised, four or five tops. The rest of the time, people called them.

 **Your Sherlock Holmes is a prick.**

 **K.**

 **Just as she suspected, the reply came through barely a minute later.**

 **Don't tease.**

 **JM.**

 **He called in. He's not what you described.**

 **K.**

 **Dinner reservations at 6pm. Salvadore.**

 **JM.**

Katherine found herself smirking down at the small device against her will. He was going to be charming to be around this evening. As an extra cherry on the cake, she may not complain as much. Maybe. For now though, she could go back to spending his money in a much better mood.

* * *

She was going to skin the man alive. Not the man in front of her. No, not Mr Salvador. Jim Moriarty. She was going to make him into a skin rug for her walk in wardrobe. He would be the price of dead leather she'd wipe her designer shoes on after walking through mud.

You can imagine her elation upon receiving the news 'Salvador' was not a place to dine. You can picture the look of pure joy on her face when received the contact file through email from Moriarty at half past four. You can dream up just what words were sent to him in reply.

It was a B level client. A difficult one. He'd barely listened to a word she'd said throughout their whole discussion and now it was proving to have been an error on his part because she was irritated. And when she was irritated, tired and frighteningly furious at her other half, it was not a good time to try and barter.

"Five hundred thousand." She repeated for the fourth time, but he was just not getting the hint. Mr Salvador was the type of man, the type of scoundrel, who saw women as the weaker race still. They were intimidating or scary. Obviously, he had never met a woman like Mrs Moriarty.

"Three hundred thousand." A sigh came from a meter to her right. Even Sebastian was growing bored.

"Five hundred thousand. Mr Salvador." If wasn't even as if he couldn't afford it. She'd read his profile, he was a well respected Banker. He was just being a little tight arse who wanted to walk away from the meeting a winner.

Her eyes were lazily narrower, her nails playing with the neck of the empty wine glass which sat in front of her. She was waiting for his manners to kick in and for him to pout her a drink. She hadn't been able to take a soothing sip for ten minutes already.

"You strike a hard bargain Moriarty." The older man sunk back into his seat, relaxed. He still thought he had the upped hand. Why did all men always think they had the upper hand? "I can see how you're so fought after." She was all set for ignoring him until that sentence escaped him. It was just too perfect...he didn't know. Maybe Jim had treated her after all.

He didn't think she was just a woman sent to talk. He didn't think she was just Moriarty's little old wife. He though she was Moriarty. Ooh it was her birthday, it had to be. You see, over the years the sweetest situation she could find herself in was this one. Katherine would show up and all the while, until the very end, the client would think they had got to Moriarty. That they had got to the top and deserved anything they wished for. Nothing was more worth relishing than the look on their face when they discover the truth. Nothing.

Oh he'd made a mistake. Mr Salvador had woke her up. No longer was she bored and begging to go home. She was ready to play, just like a lioness toyed with her prey before the kill.

Katherine sat up, a long smirk spreading across her lips. He grinned at her, thinking she'd fallen for his incorrect compliment. She was going to enjoooooy this one. "Me? Oh no, no." With a feminine giggle, Katherine played with her hands in a giddy fashion. "I'm merely the...messenger." Her voice had become dangerously low and with pursed lips, she looked like a siren. Looking through her lashes at Mr Salvador, his heart sped up but something in him was twisted as well.

He had heard of all the stories to come with the name. People warned him time and time again, not to get involved unless it was absolutely necessary. They warned him of the consequences, the possible complications, the depts. he'd came in confident and so far it had seemed easy. The woman in front of him was the complete opposite to the corrupt mob boss he had expected. But the way her eyes stared a hole in his head now...

"I don't understand, the people who put me in contact..." He was interrupted as a disturbingly wide smile developed from her smirk, not quite reaching her eyes. He wasn't in on the joke, seemingly. "They...they spoke your name. Moriarty. They said you could help." All those calls. All those emails and vague messages. They all spoke of the same name, her name.

"And I can. They didn't lie." Growing impatient, Katherine picked the bottle of red wine up and poured the remaining liquid into her glass.

"This is important." Like all the others before him, he quickly grew stressed and irritated. Good, now he knew how she'd felt for the past hour. "I want to speak with your boss." Her laughter returned. She liked him, this one was funny.

"I'm afraid that's not an option."

"I will not sit here and be negotiated with, by...by some asset of theirs." Not so funny. Her face changed dramatically quick, startling even the sniper who watched her close and listened to them even closer. Her mouth was a straight line, she swallowed hard as her mouth went dry and she just sat there...watching him. His burst of anger shrunk back quicker than the tide, he even avoided her eyes after a second or two.

"Asset?" The air was still. Katherine's chest rose steadily, but quick. She was out of patience. "I am the so-called 'asset' that could see your son killed as payment. Hmm?" Her eyes bore quirked as Mr Salvador's lips were quick to tremble. "I'm the woman who could throw you to the big boys without even uttering your name to them. I'm the-"

"You bitch."

"Do not interrupt me!" He daresent even breathe for the remainder of their meeting. "...I'm the asset, that could tell Moriarty how much you offended me. How small you made his wife feel after he sent her here to help you." The realisation finally dawned on him and just like she knew it would, her lust for power soared. It was better than any high. It was that feeling all over again, just like when she held that smoking gun. "Do I make myself quite clear, Mr Donaldson?"

And then came the bit she despaired, the begging. It was humiliating how quick people turned to begging, so soon after falling from their pedestal. "Oh god. Please, I...I just need this so much."

"Yes I've heard it all before. Now do shut up and stop grovelling." She pulled out her phone, simply to check her missed messages and run over the proposal again. "Six hundred thousand. And considering my earlier contributions and your rudeness, I would consider that a fair deal. Wouldn't you?" Not only that but it was the lowest Moriarty would settle for. He wasn't important enough to lower the price, and any lower the deal would be off.

"Deal." It was a good choice he made, letting this be easy. Or so she thought... "I can transfer the money by next week."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "Not good enough, I only take cash. Card readers are so hard to carry round in a designer handbag." He wanted to hit her, she could see it in his eyes. She'd seen it so many times before.

"I can't. I haven't got that much money. I-"

"Then no deal." Lies. He was lying. She didn't have time for layers. "We don't deal with smalltimers. It's too messy and quite frankly we just don't have the time." Katherine stood, downing the rest of her wine and gathering her things. With a smile, she went to step down from the booth, waving at her loyal bodyguard. "Sebastian."

"Please. I can try and get the money. Two days. Please?" She stopped still, letting him sweat. It was time to ring the big boss.

Katherine typed a number and raised her phone to her eyes, all the while she let her eyes roam freely over Mr Salvador. He could do with easing off the beer, and spending more time outdoors.

'Darling, how's your evening?" Oh she couldn't wait to smother him in his sleep.

"Two days." No time for small talk. Jim made a 'oh' sound on the other end of the phone.

'Do you have him sweating already?'

"Hmm a little, it's sweet."

'Good, good...two days...no more.'

"Of course." Katherine hung up the phone and looked down her nose at the man who, by now, was shaking in a puddle of his own juices. He was disgusting, he wasn't worth any of their time. "You have two days, no more. You know how to find us if you need us." She didn't give him time to answer. Lifting her purse on to her arm, she snarled at Sebastian who stepped up to her side.

"Can you not just take that one out?"

"If I did that for everyone you asked, 90% of Londons population would be executed." Sebastian joked but she could only sigh.

"I don't see your point...would that be bad?" It would just mean there was 90% less people to irritate her.

Seb immediately started shaking his head with a loud laugh. "You're getting worse than the boss." As the left the bar, Katherine stopped and let her jaw drop with mock shock.

"Sebastian! Don't be cruel." Once she was in the car, her head fell back against the head rest. Her bed was calling her name. The way she felt, Moriarty may even get off with being skinned, she'd wait until morning. "Please say it's time to go home."

"It's...not time to go home." Her eyes popped open and in a flash, she was sat up and glaring at Sebastian through the rear view mirror. "Sorry Princess...the boss has one more job for you." He was speaking though his amusement, she could here it. He was next on her list. But first was Jim. Jim...he was seriously pushing his luck.

"He's a dead man walking tonight."

* * *

Thankfully the drive was only five minutes, but there was not yet any news on what was about to happen. They had pulled up in front of a tall apartment block and her heart dropped. If he'd set her up with a cleaning job she was going to walk away. Divorce would be on the cards. These days, that type of work was rare but still happened occasionally, she was his best after all.

"Sebastian?" Katherine called out, climbing out the car as quick as she could.

"This way."

He said no more. "Sebastian?" He only walked a few feet and then stopped to wait for her. Once she was by his side he carried on. No one else was with them. He wasn't carrying any supplies and there was no news from Jim. Despite the sniper being there, she was growing ever so slightly nervous.

A long walk through the large, lavish foyer and a ride in the elevator up to the penthouse suite didn't help her settle anymore. Sebastian led the rest of the way and opened the door to the suite, entering a passcode to disable a second lock. She was watching him very carefully, worry and curiosity drowning her thoughts. However a second later, when the door opened, she grinned.

Stood there, waiting with arms wide open in the centre of the living room, was Jim.

"Difficult evening darling?" All to easily, the anger which had been building up for the past four or so hours melted away and she ran to him. As soon as her head lay against his chest, his arms wrapped her up and he laid a kiss on the top of her head. She was too tired to go through a whole argument with him, which she would most likely loose anyway. She just wanted his offered warmth and affection and her bed, their bed.

"Very." The mumble was muffled as her face turned into his neck. "New?" She paused and felt him nod. "And you didn't even ask for my opinion?" Pulling back, Jim pouted and stroked her back.

"It was a surprise. Like it?"

"Love it..." Of what she saw, it was Moriarty's style, no doubt. All grey and black furnishings, but it was lovely. Deceivingly homely. "But why?" They had many houses in London. Admittedly this one surpassed all the others on style and most likely price, but the others were just as close to the city and just as big. The first she'd ever witnessed was not still in his possession, but there were around 3 others.

"You know I like variety." Only because one meant he was a 'sitting duck'. Should one be compromised, Jim liked the idea of just being able to get up and go to another which no one knew about. She had to agree of course, anything which increased their security was a positive. "I thought we could stay here for a few days, save us both driving into the city. After all, you were whining about never seeing me."

"You didn't have to buy us a new apartment for that." Katherine chuckled, allowing his arms to circle her waist as her hands rose and rested on his shoulders.

"Well I did, so get used to it sweetheart. You're going to be sick of these devilishly good looking features by the end of the week."

"Hmm, we will just see about that Mr Moriarty." His lips claimed hers, instantly making her moan against him. She'd done excellently today and they had a lot to talk about, but first he had to put her in the mood for talking and there was only one activity in the world which made his woman curl against him and gossip the night away.

"Go get washed up...I just need to tuck Sebastian in." Jim threw a smirk over her shoulder at the sniper who was stood awkwardly in the doorway, avoiding all eye contact. He tapped her behind to get Katherine sharply on her way in the right direction and he watched her retreating back, the sway of her hips in that tight dress.

When she was out of the room and he heard the tap turn on in the master ensuite, Jim made his way over to Sebastian. All of the charm had been replaced with seriousness and his eyes held that of a shark.

"Anything?"

"Nothing. Not even off the books." Sebastian shook his head, making sure to keep his voice low. In reply, Moriarty nodded slowly and took a second to think. There was no real threat, nothing yet to be concerned about, he could leave them for now.

"Keep this low, you understand? Not a word to the missus."

"Yes, boss." They were all under strict instructions, Mrs Moriarty must not even have her suspicions raised. If she did, heads would roll.

"Get out. I have work to do." That smirk returned and Sebastian shook his head. All tension dropped from the room just like that as Jim began to slug towards the back of the apartment where there bedroom was situated. From the look on his face, you'd think he was looking forward to it. Sex with his own gorgeous, hot wife, what a fucking chore.

"You still calling it work?" Sebastian called out as he turned to leave.

"Goodnight Sebastian."

He heard her giggling before he was out of the house, shrill and full of giddiness. Jim was being himself, Seb could tell purely from her careless laughter and shrieks. He was being...Jim. Not Moriarty. Which was rare. Over the past year he'd physically seen it a handful of times, he knew the amount of times Katherine actually experienced it wasn't much more. But she barely even realised. To her, Jim was always Jim. It was just his mood that fluctuated, but she always found something to love.


	6. Chapter 6

"I tell you Sebastian, women at Christmas are the antichrist. In fact they are worst than the antichrist, they are...they're..." Katherine's mind trailed off as she typed out a message on her phone to Jim. But a second later her face contorted and she looked at him through the rearview mirror, in the drivers seat. "What's worse than the antichrist?" He openly threw her a smirk as he pulled out on to the busy London street.

"Your incessant whining?" Bad day at work, he knew about it. Distasteful lunch, he heard the story. Jim was acting weird, he was the one she harassed. Though he would let her get away with the latter point given what their life had been like the past few weeks.

"Now Sebastian, don't act like you don't love my company." Throwing her phone into her bag, she gave a sigh and slouched in her seat. All day the texts had been coming in from him. They were just little things, how the job was, if there had been any updates on Sherlock. But it was off. He wasn't normally like that. She blamed her meeting with Sherlock a couple of months back. Since then he'd kept suffocatingly close. "I'd like to go home now, shopping is no fun when it's for other people."

Home still meant that new shining apartment. They had only been back to the house in the countryside for one weekend and that was to collect some of Jim's papers and the majority of her clothes and belongings. She had to admit mornings were easier as she still worked for Mycroft Holmes, but she missed her staff. It sounded awful, she was already aware, but she did. Though it did mean she'd got the chance to spend a lot more time with her husband. But that was equally as unsettling as it was comforting.

"Any word on Drapers case?" She asked casually, five minutes into the drive. They were only a couple of minutes from the apartment but after spending eight hours shopping with only her five bodyguards, she felt like she needed the conversation. Although Sebastian had been one of the five, he had been strangely silent. Spending more time watching her back than actually accompanying her.

"Not yet. Should be by the end of the week." His answer was blunt and serious, as it always was when business was involved. But she couldn't shake that feeling.

"Sebastian?" Her head turned so she could look out of the rear passenger window. "Is there something going on that I should know about?"

"What like?" She could feel his eyes on her instantly and she sighed. The headache which had refused to leave her for weeks was pounding, making the winter sun seem like it was screaming at her.

"I don't know...something with Holmes or whatnot. Jim is acting protective for the first time in months." The last time had been at a ball where Magnussen had been a guest of honour. A Great White amongst a sea of Tiger Fish. "And...things...It's probably just me sorry. I haven't been feeling well the past couple of weeks." She was probably just stressing herself for no reason. The apprehension of working with Mycroft and being so close to Sherlock was slowly driving her insane.

A long bath and a good meal would be much appreciated. Just as soon as they got home, she would dismiss the sniper and spend some much needed time on her own finally. It would be a good few hours before Jim got home, she could unwind.

"Do you need anything?" Sebastian seemed to be paying closer attention to her, growing concerned when her hand rubbed her temple. It was only for his own sake, if she fell sick under his watch, he would pay the consequences.

"No, it's probably just work."

"What a hard life Mrs Moriarty leads. Not used to the nine hour days yet?" With her hand falling to her side, Katherine smirked at him.

"Tell me Sebastian, would you like a Christmas Day this year."

"Katherine, you're deluded if you think you will get a Christmas Day." Unfortunately he was right, she was kidding herself if she thought it was going to be all presents and turkey with carols playing. The whole Moriarty family gathered around them as they all laughed and told embarrassing stories of Jim's youth.

Jim would be in his office and she would be sat going about her daily chores, just like every other previous year.

Oh she just wanted to be home. Her feet ached, her head ached, even her stomach ached. How long did it take to drive through London Christmas traffic for gods sake!

It was another 20 minutes crawling through the streets before she was able to get out the sickening shell of a vehicle. She could have walked home quicker, she wished she had walked home quicker. At least then the air would have been crisp and fresh and not artificially warm and polluted.

"Sebastian, you're dismissed once we're upstairs." She spoke with certainty as the crossed the foyer.

"Of course Mrs Moriarty."

She couldn't help herself and a long yawn escaped her. She was getting too old for this, even her stamina was staring to fail. Ever since she turned 30 back in July her energy had just dwindled.

When the lift doors opened, Sebastian took the liberty of opening the door to the flat for her and carrying the bulk of her shopping into the flat.

"Bedroom?"

"Yes please Seb, thanks." He was already on his way with the bags before she replied, eager to get home no doubt. Shopping with her was not a breeze and she knew it. Katherine threw her coat down onto the empty sofa chair and unwrapped the wool scarf from her neck as she wandered over to the window.

At least the views calmed her down. The sun was already beginning to set behind the building opposite. The sky clear was a palette of pike and purple, oranges and red further in the distance. It was beautiful. Even the architecture of the building surrounding them was amazing, all modern and sleek. London had changed so much in the past few years, she almost missed the gothic streets and alleys. But standing where she was now, everything in the world seemed...touchable. In those streets, nothing was possible. But here, she felt as if she could fly. Given everything, the stress, the work, Jim's frequent mood swings but rare devotion. She was happy. Looking out at all she had, she was happy.

She took one last look down at the streets growing emptier as it winded down to tea time and gave a small smile to herself. Then, it happened as she turned.

Katherine Moriarty didn't know what came first, the sound of the glass cracking, the force of the impact knocking her body, or the inscrutable pain in her shoulder. But before she could register anything, she was falling back to sit on a small coffee table, knocking a phone and trinkets to the floor.

"Katherine!" Sebastian's voice screamed from the bedroom but she couldn't make a sound.

She couldn't feel her lips or her tongue, she could move. Looking down, her eyes clouded over as she saw the red starting to stain her white clothing. The thin material started to stick to her chest and her stomach, a the blood ran down her skin. But even still, she was silent, there were no words.

"Katherine! What- oh fuck!" Her back was to him, but he know. The window was cracked like a fracture but in tact, the small hole the main indicator of what had happened. He knew because he saw it, caused it, every day of the week. She was hunch over, her head hanging, but she was breathing. But hat didn't slow his actions. "Katherine! Katherine!" The sniper ran to her, dropping into a crouch by her side, it didn't take long to see the wound and the blood spilling from it. "Shit..."

With nothing to hold against her, Sebastian quickly removed his jacket and pressed it to her chest, removing her curious hand now covered in her blood after she touched her skin. It didn't seem real through her eyes, the pain was there but had not yet truly taken affect due to the adrenaline filling her veins.

"Seb..." The sound barely classed as a whisper, her face paralysed. She was going into shock.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay. Come on, you need to lie down." He needed to stop the blood loss, she needed to lie down and lie still. Her hand clutched the neck of his t-shirt, staining the material as well as his skin, as he helped her down to the hard floor and put himself between her and the window. He was her bodyguard after all. Making sure she was flat on her back, Sebastian brushed a hand over her cheek but never moved his other from pressing on the wound. "You're going to be alright, you hear me?" He never thought he'd be so desperate for her to keep talking, but he had to try and keep her conscious and calm. She gave an inaudible murmur and moved so her cheek touch the floor. Seb was calling someone, she could hear the buttons being pressed. Everything she picked out was the small things, how nice the cold tiles felt on her skin, the steadying slow of her breathing as she closed her eyes. It was all so calm. Maybe this is how they felt, The Samson's? It hadn't looked it at the time, it was all screaming and crying, this was much more peaceful. "We're going to get Jim here and he's going to fix it, okay? No, no, no..." He was babbling, with her blood on his hands, but upon seeing her eyes closed her pinned the phone between his jaw and shoulder and started stroking her hair roughly. "Katherine, you got to open your eyes for me. Now!"

She tried, really she tried. But in the end they were just small slits. She wasn't able to focus on anything. All she could see was the window at the other end of the room. Maybe if she'd just turned right instead of left?

"Jim, Katherine's been shot." She picked up for a second hearing that name. Maybe he would fix it? He could do everything else...couldn't he? "Shot, as in, bleeding. On the floor. Fucking bullet wound in the shoulder Jim...Not...not good." He kept the last part hushed, but she heard it. She almost wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. If her end was being shot through a window, her death certificate may as well ready cause: humiliation.

The phone was thrown to the floor next to her a second later and Sebastian's hand was back in her hair, his face in front of hers to check she was staying awake.

"Seb..." she managed to look at him for only a moment before closing her eyes. It was starting to come to her now, the pain. Sweeping from her shoulder, across her chest and down. "Tell me the truth." He knew what she was asking, he knew as soon as he saw the tear come to the corner of her eye.

"Jim won't let that happen." On the phone, he'd sounded empty. Agitated, then seething, then just...emotionless. He'd hung up silently but he doubted that had lasted long. "He's only five minutes away." Even he spoke with unnatural calmness now, slouching next to her but putting his full weight on the jacket with was slowly turning red.

"Promise me something, he likes you, he'll listen to you..."

"Stop it." Seb snapped at her but she didn't listen. Of course, only Katherine could be more stubborn when vulnerable.

"Don't let him marry again. And if he does..." She took in a sharp breath and then emitted and long groan, trying to control the shaking which threatened to take over her shocked limbs. "Make sure she's fat, old and ugly...and make him miserable. Ah god! He better be miserable!" The scream was out of pain more than actual anger, and despite himself, Sebastian laughed at her. He wouldn't need to keep any such promise, but if he did, he doubt he'd need to with Jim.

"I..." He couldn't say it, saying it meant accepting it and she was going to come out of this. "Everything will be fine."

"Where is he?" Her voice had called weak again, the spike of energy caused by the last drips of adrenaline, dying of. Katherine's limbs became limp and her eyes threatened to roll to the back of her head as they fluttered shut.

"Coming, he's coming." And in tow would be his best contacts. Sebastian didn't know exactly what to expect, but he'd been told to wait and keep her alive so that's what he'd do. God knows what Jim would do to him if he didn't.

In Katherine's mind things were a little different. She felt betrayed. It probably had nothing to do with her, it was most likely more a stab at Jim than her but she felt let down. He'd promised her so many times. Upon their meeting, after her kidnapping, even on their wedding night. He had swore to her that he would protect her and that no one would touch her. Well...she hated to admit it but laying on the floor of her own home with a bullet in her body didn't make her feel untouchable. In fact it felt very bloody weakening. He had promised. Maybe he had done all he could, but it wasn't enough and he had promised.

"Sebastian!" She gasped at the sound of his voice, making her splutter and cough.

Before she knew it he was stood over her, those devilish eyes focused on her own as he shrunk to the floor. His hand replaced Sebastian's on her wound instantly and the other went to hold her own.

"Hey..." He was whispering. With straight features, his focus turned down to the wound as he uncovered it ever so slightly, and then looked to Sebastian. It probably wasn't the fault of the bodyguard...but he had been paid to watch her. He'd let this happen. Jim made sure the snarl had left him by the time to leant back down to be near Katherine, whispering to her. "You need to keep those eyes open for me darling." She did as he said and looked at him, blind panic spilling from her eyes. "Good girl." There was a small pause, during which he sighed and kissed her again, and then his business persona returned. "We need to get her down to the car. I have men on every floor keeping eyes at bay. You're going to drive us to Swansons." Sebastian dared to look at him like he was a fool.

"Swansons? Jim..."

"We don't have time for anywhere else. I trust him." Sebastian was silenced but his face was a one of fury. That 'doctor' knew less about the human body than the local butcher. Three times removed from surgeries and one time convicted of man-slaughter. Jim was the one to get him off... he was a monster, but Jim was right. The next closest was too far and she'd have bled out before they'd even made half the journey.

As the sniper stood to ready himself, Jim took Katherine's hand and knelt down to kiss the top of her head. She was heating up, they needed to act fast. "Hold onto me darling." He placed her hands around his neck and moved his arms under her. The wail which escaped her as he stood twisted his heart, she was once again broken under his watch. As her cold hands pulled on his hair, he vowed to himself to not snap, at least not at her. She didn't deserve this. "Keep talking to me sweetheart, what did you buy today huh?" He knew she'd planned to shop out all day, that's why he'd instructed three extra pairs of eyes on her.

Her teeth were clenched but as he moved her towards the front door, she managed a reply. "It's a surprise."

"Right." He could help a smirk as he looked down at her. "Nothing for yourself? That's not like you." Teasing her was the only way to ensure a reply, if he'd learnt anything about her over the past three years it was that.

"A..." Her breath caressed his neck as she exhaled, trying to shift in his arms, but no matter how she lay, she was no more comfortable. Her veins had started to itch, she was close to being sick with the pain. "A dress...you won't like it though." She tried to continue talking to him, for her own benefit or being reminded he was there.

"And why is that?" They were having to wait to long for the elevator, forcing his words to come out forced, but he soon made up for it by rubbing his thumb in circles on her knee.

"It's pink." He did allow a chuckle to finally sound then. Sebastian who followed them into the elevator but stood too far away to hear her, looked at him strangely but Jim didn't care. As long as she had her sense of humour, as long as she was with them, he didn't care about anyone else but her.

"One time. One time I said you didn't suit pink." And she never dared wear it again. He admired her stamina over the years but she was stupid. That body looked delicious in anything, bar blood soaked jackets belonging to his idiotic men. "If you're a good girl and stay awake, I'll let you wear it to our next date." She went quiet after that, but Jim never took his eyes off her. She was awake, her eyes just barely open as her head was turned into his chest, but she couldn't speak anymore. The energy just wasn't there.

Luckily, they arrived downstairs with no complications and the car was waiting. Katherine was placed across the back seat of the Range Rover and her head laid on Jim knee while Sebastian took the wheel.

From the moment they set off, her eyes were closed but Jim kept whispering to her, squeezing her hand, kissing her head, just to make her respond. It wasn't for a few minutes that she actually made the attempt to speak, and when she did he actually wished she hadn't.

"You promised..." Since they left the flat, Katherine hadn't been able to shake the feeling of mistrust as he held her. She normally felt so safe in his arms. Whenever he was there it was like no one else even existed, but now it just felt like anyone could come and stick a bullet in her. She hadn't meant to let the words slip out, but it just happened.

And Jim heard them. He heard them and was grateful that her eyes were shut so she didn't see the honest regret cross his face. She was right and it was all he'd been able to think about since Seb's call. He'd let her down and she could've died cause of it...she still could.

"I know, I let you down." He couldn't look at her, so he chose to look out the window. "I'm sorry Katherine." She'd heard him say that phrase a thousand times, each when he'd called into the dark side. But she had never heard him say it so truthfully, and for something he hadn't directly done. "They shouldn't have been able to get to you." No they shouldn't, but...she didn't doubt he had done everything in his power to get in their way. Whoever 'they' were.

When she didn't reply, he turned back to her and saw her chest was barely moving. "How close are we?" Her hands were turning cold and her lips paling. She'd lost a lot of blood and she'd been unbelievably strong so far, but he couldn't expect for it to continue. There would come a time when her fight would run out and he wasn't going to rand by and let that happen in this car.

"Five minutes."

"Make it three and I won't shoot you once we get there." Something ran cold in Jim's voice, sending a chill down Sebastian's spine. For once, he was worried because he knew there was no kidding. God forbid she didn't pull through, no one in the World would be safe from Jim.

The car pulled up outside a detached house just outside Battersea. It looked run down, dirty, seedy. Jim Moriarty's mouth tasted sour just looking at it as his wife squirmed with pain in his lap. But they had no choice. It was the truth and he'd keep telling them all that. It was this or death.

"Come on darling." He scooped her up and got out the car, but as he carried her she felt heavier. Her head dropped and her hand didn't stay around his neck like he placed them, instead they fell onto her stomach, limp.

When they entered, the guy was already waiting in the front 'waiting room'. A few wooden chairs and he found it acceptable to call it that. Beside his were two plainly dressed women in surgical masks and a gurney.

"Mr Moriarty, welcome." Jim ignored Swanson but walked straight over and placed her on the metal stretcher. At least it looked clean. There was a price already settled but nothing would be paid until he was satisfied. So far...he had deducted £10,000.

"They're going to take care of you." Katherine's eyes opened and she looked at him with pure fear. She looked as venerable as a child...she'd started to cry after his warmth had stopped enveloping her. "Be a good girl." Her hand wouldn't let his go, all of her remaining stretch going into keeping him close. As far as she knew, as soon as he left she was dead. He was the only one that could help, not those...masked stranger who looked over her. Him. She needed him.

"I don't want you to go." She barely felt his lips touching her knuckles, there was a light warmth there but she was trembling. It made his chest race, seeing her in such a state. A part of him didn't want her to let go either, but he had to hand her over even if it felt wrong.

With a hand on her forehead which was now sticky in a cold sweat, Jim kissed her lips one last time. "Hey. You need to be strong for me okay...I love you Katherine."

"I love you too." He squeezed her hand, stood and then let go. She was taken to a back room and the door was shut. God knows what they were doing to her behind it. What they were drugging her with, cutting into her with...they better hope to God they didn't hurt her any more.

"She better be in good hands." It was a growl, a deep wolf like grown. Jim bared his teeth and daresent look at the man who still stood by his side. If he did, he feared he's snap his neck. "I want her seen to now and I want it done properly."

"Of course, sir. My team are already working on her, I assure you." Then why was he still here yapping!

Jim smiled that infamous sinister grin and finally turned toward Swanson. All donned in his blue plastic gloves and everything, wasn't he just adorable. It took five second for Moriarty to grab him by his green scrubs and hold him at his eyes level.

"No, no, no. Swanson." From head to toe, Jim studied each inch of his uniform. "I don't want your team, I'm not paying for your team." His eyes narrowed and darkened. "If my wife comes out of that room with even one fingernail chipped...I'll throw you to my pooches. Understood?"

"Y-Yes sir." The older mans fear satisfied him and he released the good doctor. Some people didn't work well under pressure, but surgeons did. "I'll be in touch when we are finished." Moriarty's laughter penetrated the still air, haunting him.

"Did you just hear me? We're staying right here." He made a point and walked over to one of the chairs, taking a seat. Swanson failed to make another sound and near ran back to the room Katherine had been taken into.

After a few moments, Jim snapped his fingers at Sebastian and started to list off demands. "I want two men on that door at all times." He nodded to decrepit wooded slab leading to the 'surgery'. "Another two out the front. Search the premises and make sure the other exits are manned and secured. No one leaves until I see Katherine alive." He didn't care if it was days. No one was leaving unless it was him and Katherine was at his side.

"Yes boss." Sebastian nodded and began to dole out the orders to his staff, compiled of Moriarty's nest ten men. The whole time they've been here however, Jim hadn't even looked at him and it made the sniper wonder. Maybe it was because in Jim's mind it was all Sebastian's fault, maybe it was the fear of loosing Katherine, which Sebastian knew was a factor. Maybe it was neither. "How much do you trust him?" The hesitation was enough of an answer. Jim hadn't chose Swanson because he was good, he chose him because he was their only choice. The next had been St Barts hospital, but that was more of a death sentence for Katherine.

Therefore, it was no surprise when Jim downright ignored him. "Arrange to have the flat swept and cleaned. I want to know of any bugs that are found and a copy of surrounding CCTV. I'll text you're man a location for things to be moved to." He wasn't taking any risks, not this time. She must have been followed, that's the only way they're have knows she was there.

Hell they weren't even after her. She was just an easy target and the only target they knew they could hit and have it effect him. A dissatisfied client. It wasn't Jim's fault the police had found them. But they were convinced it was his bad craftsmanship. The first threat had been sent to him two months ago, a simple email detailing exactly what emotions they felt and how he would soon feel the same. Loss, anger, betrayal...it was all there. He'd tried to keep her with him as much as possible, in the new flat he swore no one knew about unless absolutely necessary, when the threats became more regular.

Ones which described her in so much detail it made him sick. He'd grown so furious during one letter that his office has been scratched up with a pocket knife from ceiling to floor. It told Jim what his own wife was wearing, what she smelled like, how she would sound with a knife in her belly. The small details hadn't been right however, she hadn't returned home in the dress they described or with her hair up like they'd said, but he hadn't known. And for one fleeting moment, he had been scared. That's what most of the anger stemmed from. He wasn't that attached, so he couldn't be scared.

But he had been. And he was now.

He should have pulled her off the job. He should've nipped it in the bud and kept her at the main house on a case. No one would have got to her then. She still be safe and smiling. But he didn't and he allowed her to carry on, unknowing. At least she hadn't lived in fear the past few months.

Jim turned his head, coming back to the present finally, and realised Sebastian no longer stood by him but sat on the floor in the corner on the room. He saw the blood stains on his neck and t-shirt in the shape of her delicate hands and bit his cheek. He didn't want to see the state of his own suit, the smell of iron was enough. It was like a slaughterhouse.

He heard a scream and stood automatically. It was hers, there was no doubt it was hers. A loud piercing scream as if they were doing the whole thing on her awake.

Jim took a step forward but Sebastian had already approached, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't. Let them." Was he crazy? They were going to kill her with exhaustion and pain. He never should've come here, he never should have let them take her. There had to have been another option, but he had been panicked and sloppy.

Jim looked back over his shoulder and clenched his jaw. "They're hurting her."

"I know but we have no choice." Knowing he'd be stopped even if her tried, Jim fell back into his seat with defeat. "Now I know you don't like being unable to take control. But they can't do any worse. She'll die Jim." Even still, the mere sound of her in pain was too much to bare. She couldn't die, she wouldn't dare.

"I'd rather she be dead than suffer." His head fell between his hand which rested on his knees and his feet played a heavy rhythm on the wood floor boards.

"She's strong." Jim looked up, and in that moment he saw the same look in Sebastian's eyes that he had tolerated for almost a year. That...spark whenever Katherine was mentioned. He'd allowed it to carry on because he kept her safe, but inside it made Jim doubt every bit of his first in commend. He knew Katherine would never fall for him, she was far too committed, but it didn't mean the sniper wouldn't try. "If anything, what's nice is that this...this is finally making you admit things to yourself." It was the final nail in the coffin and it made Jim scoff. He had no idea...no one had any idea how he treated Katherine but the woman herself. No one would ever know, because the effect was what kept her safe. No one would know how he looked at her because if they saw, they'd know how much of a weakness she really was to him. He didn't have many, but she was at the front and centre of his world. This time, his enemies just took a lucky guess.

With his eyes train on Sebastian's throat, Jim sucked in his cheeks, raised one brow and spat through his teeth words he would never regret.

"Go cry in a corner Sebastian. She isn't yours to pine after." It took a while for them to penetrate, but once they did a short scoff left Sebastian before he simply stood and walked back to the corner.

Leaving Jim to throw it all away on his own, and leave him to suffer alone over the long hours which were to come.


	7. Chapter 7

Four hours later, Moriarty had yet to move. He just sat there, staring at either the floor or the corridor which led to Katherine. He was a man possessed.

It was approaching 11pm when the door finally opened and outstepped Swanson. He was covered in blood, head to toe. More than he should have been given the placement of the gunshot wound and level of work. Nothing called for that. It was very rare that Moriarty felt sick but in that moment, he could have killed the man right then and there on the spot die to how he made his stomach twist.

"Mr Moriarty." The man had the audacity to smile. "She's resting." Surprising everyone of his men who had been witness to his mood the entire evening, Jim didn't move. Until a moments time, when he snapped his fingers and gave one simple order.

"Restrain him." Before Doctor Swanson knew what was happening, two of his men had him pinned to a wall.

"Depending on what I see in there..." Jim pointed to the unknown room and then into the eyes of the man who had an unknown amount of time left to live. "You either die with your face worthy of an open casket, or unidentifiable." There was no other choices. That man died tonight. No discussion.

The man was smart and he stayed silent as Jim carried on his way. One of his men followed a few feet behind should he be needed, but for the most part, Jim was on his own. A large part of him didn't want to enter the room, but that was soon pushed aside when he saw the edge of her bed creep into view.

She could have been dead. Katherine's body wasn't placed like all the others were in all the movies. She didn't look like a sleeping Snow White or peaceful figure recovering. It looked like she had been shot right there and left to die.

Her clothes had been ripped from her body, her designer shoes thrown on top of them in a disrespectful heap in the corner. Still pale and smeared in blood, the wound in her shoulder stood out, ugly and risen. It hadn't even been dressed, it barely looked clean. Had it not been for the small rising and falling of her chest, he would've thought it was all over.

Upon walking closer, he saw the black stains over her cheeks and down the sides of her face, where tears had smudged her makeup. Jim picked up one of her hands and turned it, but looked away when he saw the small cuts in her palm, created by her own feline fingernails. They hadn't looked after her, they had barely treated her. He may as well have taken her to the crack den down the road.

Her hair was stuck to her with with sweat and god knows what else, a small trail of blood trailing from the corner of her mouth. She was ruined. Used, broken and ruined. And he had let it all happened as he sat back in the next room.

Jim forced himself to leave the room again, cracking his knuckles and rolling up his sleeves as he walked back to stand a foot away from Swanson. Sebastian, who had taken a back seat in the whole ordeal, stood only a meter away. He hadn't seen her, but he could only imagine what the scene was like to make Jim's eyes turn the colour they were. He wasn't in control anymore, the anger had took over and there was no doubt more blood was about to be spilled.

"That's my wife, lying there..." His thick Irish drawl was deep, worrying even the men who held the Doctor against his will. "Hard to believe she was sooo perfect once...before I let people like you touch her." It was like she was made out of the finest China when they met. No scars, no real knowledge of pain or fear. They'd destroyed her and he was going to have to sit and watch as she rebuilt herself again.

"She's alive. That's what you wanted, isn't it?" It would have been smart for him to not speak. That may have saved him from going through hell before peace came.

"For how long?" Jim's head shook in disbelief. "One week before infection takes hold? A month before we find out you've done half a job?"

"Mor-"

"THAT. IS MY WIFE!" His exclamation could have brought a riot to order, but then it shrunk back like the tide and became dangerous. Moriarty wasn't scary when he was loud, it wasn't his style. It was when silence came, that people should run. "I should let her do this herself."

"Wh-" Before he could pronounce a single syllable, Jim retrieved the pocket knife from his trouser pocket and buried the short blade into the doctors groin. His scream could have cracked glass. As blood began to pour to the floor through his scrubs, Jim pulled the knife out and pushed used it again, this time in his thigh.

"What did you do to her?" There was no reply, another thick move. So he got a third injury to the side of his right hip. "What did you do to her!?" He started to cry with the pain, just like she had. It made the next tear to his stomach that much sweeter, but Jim was careful to place it so not real damage would be done. He'd live. "What did you do!?"

"I saved her." He finally spoke, voice raspy from screaming. But as Swanson picked his hanging head up, he did something which not only sealed his own fate, but that of everyone who had worked on Katherine. "Which is more than can be said for you, Mr Moriarty." Whether it struck a nerve because Jim thought it true, or whether it was just the anger from both attacks on his wife, Moriarty stabbed Swanson's left shoulder and then buried the knife in the right, leaving it there.

Then he went straight back into Katherine's room and started pulling all the tubes from her skin.

"You can't take her, not yet. She needs to rest." Sebastian, bewildered by both Jim behaviour and the scene which has just took place, regrettably agreed. As sad of a state that she may have been in, she could leave, it was too risky. But Moriarty's reply came just as he knew it would.

"And she will. But not here, not under your care." Jim lifted Katherine's naked form into his arms after laying his jacket across her, hiding most of her intimate parts. When he emerged in to the corridor with her, all his mean fell silent out of shock instead of respect.

Sebastian had imagined the worst, but it still hadn't prepared him. Maybe Jim was right after all. They had to get out of here.

"You're killing her!" Swanson practically screamed as Moriarty passed, but the consultant didn't bat an eyelid. Not until he had passed, then he started dishing out the orders.

"Lock him up, somewhere, anywhere, I don't care. Find everyone else in the building and take them out. Two bullets for each, one in the shoulder, one in the head. Ten minutes between each." He was showing how cruel he could really be. Every other day he was the text on a screen who never got his hands dirty. Today was one of those days, those one in a million days where someone pushed too far and he proved how twisted he really was, going so far as to get blood on his own hands.

In the kingdom of guns and dynamite, he was king and there wasn't anybody who dared mess with the queen.

"Jim." Sebastian tried to reach out and help but all he got was a glare of strict warning.

"If I so much as hear you breathe, you will join them." Moriarty then carried on, holding Katherine close to his chest and nodding his head as is close second best. "Kevin. Car."

* * *

6am and Jim was slumping in his chair, but sleep was not even a threat. It was like deja vu, waiting for a doctor to emerge from behind a door. At least time it belonged to a man who he truly trusted with his life.

He had phoned Doctor Phillips the second he'd left that abandoned warehouse he dared to call a clinic. It was late but Phillips owed Jim a favour and upon hearing the situation, there wasn't anyway he could refuse. The drive had been long. Two and a half hours of Katherine laying on his knee, his hands restlessly running over her thighs. Half an hour in she had moved but she hadn't awoken, still unconscious when he handed her into the welcoming arms of the Doctor and his team.

That's was four hours ago and he had yet to hear a peep. The only other man in the waiting room was Kevin, who kept himself to himself in the far corner of the room. But he was loyal and waited...probably too scared to move.

As he started to grow restless, impatient and stiff, Jim stood and walked to look out of the small window that looked out over the vast countryside. A much better view than Battersea. One arms was crossed over his chest, the other covered his mouth so stop himself biting his lip.

A click to his left made him tune in but he didn't move. Something just didn't sit right within him, something wasn't right. Out the corner of his eyes, he could see the doctor walking towards him, almost as clean as when he had entered the theatre. But he couldn't see his expression and Jim didn't want to look. As much as it pained him to admit it, he was scared to look.

"Well?" Jim was forced to speak first when Phillips stood awkwardly off to his left.

"She's in an awful state Jim." With a scoff, Moriarty dropped his hand to his sides and finally turned with his back hunched a tiny bit. That meant she was alive, but it didn't mean well. At this point he just wanted the details, all of them, as quick as possible.

"Tell me something I'm not already aware of."

Sensing the unease in Jim's mood, the doctor started to explain. "We redid the surgery, or we redid what we could. We cleaned it up, made it as neat as we could by restitching the wound. But it means the scar is larger." He knew Moriarty and he knew he liked things perfect. "In future I could maybe do some plastic surgery on it but, for now, it's as good as it's going to get."

"I don't care, as long as she's alive and safe." Jim eyes turned down towards the ground and desperately, he tried to stop himself from picturing Katherine in the state she was in when they had arrived. At least now she was clean and safe and appreciated. Even if it cost him a small fortune.

But then he looked at Phillips and his brow rose. There was the sign of a frown. There was something else. See the Doctor had been expecting a much grander reaction from the professional criminal standing before him. He'd, kind of, been hoping for one as it would had lessened the blow the his next news. The news which had kept him in his office ten minutes longer than necessary.

"What?" Moriarty pushed after a short silence fell over them.

"There was something else Jim." He couldn't speak as he listened to the words, already thinking the worse. Nothing could have prepared him though, it had never even crossed his mind. "Katherine was pregnant."

Later, Phillips would be sworn to secrecy. Nothing that happened inside that surgery, happened. It was all some long, bad nightmare. He wouldn't tell anyone of the screams Katherine would give once she woke up and heard the news, he wouldn't speak a whisper of how Moriarty himself had paled and stood over her unconscious body, feeling the flat softness of her belly. He would take it all to the grave, or so help him god. But for now, he had to stand, stiffened by fear as Jim slowly began to shake his head, stuttering.

"You've made a mistake. She'd couldn't have been..."

"She had a miscarriage early into the surgery. At first we did know what it was but..." Phillips trailed off as Moriarty walked back to his seat and fell back into it. His normal self would have been relieved. He would've cared less about the loss, but after watching Katherine fall from full health to a slab of meat on a metal table, he didn't know what to think.

"How...what?" Not many people had seen him in such a state, had it not been for the exhaustion he would have killed himself right on the spot for showing such human emotions. People died, it's just what they did. He shouldn't care.

"8 to 10 weeks judging on the tests we ran."

After a uneasy moment, Jim stood once again and looked at Phillips with a state that portrayed how serious his next demand was. "I want to see her."

"She's still resting, I-"

"I want to see her Frank." Jim was already walking past him when he answered with a sign.

"End of the corridor, to the left." Sighing with defeat. Phillips didn't leave them and quickly followed Moriarty to the room. However, he was smart and stayed under the threshold of the door as Jim slowly approached her bed side.

His hand touched her ankle ever so faintly above the covers she was tucked into, and as it dragged up her body, his fingers barely made contact. Until it reached her arm which rested on top of the scratchy hospital blankets. His thumb held her wrist to feel for a pulse just so he had some hard evidence she was just sleeping, that she hadn't crossed over into the land of the angels. Her skin was almost blue it was so pale, her lips were cracked and now they'd cleaned off her make up she looked too much like a child. For a woman of thirty, she looked younger. That was the main reason it took his men and clients so long to respect her...but also why more of them fancied her. Katherine's long, dark hair was down and framed her face in messy tats. Jim felt as though they'd both been taken back two years, to when he'd had to carry her broken body into the care of the very same doctor. But this time was different, this time it was all him. This was an attack on him...and his family.

"The shooter or the doctor?" Jim's head barely turned away from Katherine but he knew Phillips was standing close by.

"Sorry-"

"Who caused it. The shooter or the doctor?" Jim couldn't bring himself to say the actual words. It just wouldn't come to his tongue. He wouldn't be the one to tell her, he couldn't be the one to deliver that and see the reaction it caused.

"It's hard to tell..." The explanation started slow, until Phillips noticed the tension rising up Moriarty's spine. "Possibly the shooting, the stress and pain would have been too much for her body to cope with in such early stages of pregnancy. But the first surgery would have been a lot for her to take..." His words slower and Moriarty knew something was coming, something Phillips didn't want to be the one to say this close to Jim. "When I checked over her injuries, there was reason to believe she was awake for most of the surgery." There was a pause, left mainly to assess how Jim was reacting. His breathing had quickened and his posture was now stiff but he was silent so Frank carried on. "A blood test picked up traces of Ketamine. She wouldn't have felt a lot of the pain due to the high, but she would have been awake and she would have felt it. She probably fell unconscious soon into it though." Was that meant to make him feel better? That she may have fallen unconscious due to stress and pain a little into it?

His stomach churned as his mind stared to imagine what she would have gone though. How he wasn't there with her and he didn't try to stop it. How she'd probably been suffering from the pain but too high to scream for him, too terrified and helpless.

"Will she remember?" Jim voice cracked, so he coughed to hide it, startling even himself.

"I can't say." He hoped she wouldn't. He hoped to god she woke up with just dream like images of what had happened. He didn't want her to remember, he didn't want her to have to suffer through trying to forget.

"It would be best, if we keep that part a secret between the two of us." When he turned his head, Jim saw the doctor looking at him with confusion. "She doesn't have to know about the pregnancy." There was no way she knew already, she had been acting for too normal. And she didn't have to find out. For all she knew, everything was fixed and nothing had been lost. But Jim knew if would be that easy and it was confirmed by Frank.

"I can't Jim, as much as I want to. I'll have to run some checks once she is awake."

"Tell her it's for something else." He would play every card her had, every favour he was owed would be used in order to protect her, and protect her mind.

"She's not stupid, they'll be a certain type of check." There had to be a way, she couldn't know. But for once Jim was defeated and he let it show as his hand entwined with Katherine's and he closed his eyes. Phillips saw it all, he'd experienced the rise of Moriarty through the years and what he saw now looked very much like the first signs of his first fall. "I'll leave you be. You know my number."

Nothing was said as he left, the door closing with a silent click. But one thing was certain, to both doctor and consultant. More blood would be spilled by dawn.


	8. Chapter 8

The constant dripping from a leaking tap was sending Jim slowly into insanity. It it wasn't the sound of water splashing against metal, it was the rumbling air conditioning or the winter wind harassing the poor weather proofing on the window. The sun had rose long ago, but he still hadn't slept. He refused. The blinds blocked out the most of the light, keeping both bodies submerged in darkness and it brought some peace to him. The dark made it feel like she hadn't been asleep as long as she had been, it made it seem as if she was simply just sleeping peacefully, awaiting the morning.

Through the hours which had passed, Jim had barely looked away from her. If he did it was to inspect a sudden sound outside the room. He'd called his men and currently there were fifteen of them surrounding the building or manning the door, behind which Katherine lay. Jim already knew each new scar and mark off by heart. He'd memorised each freckle dotting her face and arms. He knew there was still one perfect part of her wrist where year old scars marked her skin, just to the left, under her thumb. He knew she had a birth mark in the shape of a diamond on her collar bone. He knew her thumb twitched in her sleep and her lips pouted when she was dreaming. All things he'd failed to notice after two years of thinking he was an expert on her, mind and body.

There was a chance it could be days, just like it had been so long ago. There was a still a chance she would never wake up. The monitors hooked onto her veins and pulse could easily just stop receiving anything. She could drop off the radar and fall into hell, there was no telling due to what she'd been through. Her body was hanging by a fraying thread.

That was why when her hand lightly twitched and her breathing became more noticeable, Jim didn't take notice. He continued to sit with her hand in his, gazing at her face which thankfully had not been marked. But then, her eyelashes fluttered and her her brow creased ever so slightly.

"Katherine?" Her name escaped him before he even had a chance to register it.

Before his eyes, Katherine slowly started to wake up. Her hand tighter around his, squeezing ever so slightly which made his stand and bend over her. With his other hand on her cheek he kept saying her name over and over, drawing her conscious to the surface.

"Arsehole." The first words...out of all the English language, her first word was...

"Arsehole? Really?" Whether she had just heard his voice properly for the first time, or whether it was just because she had realised what she'd muttered, Katherine finally opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Whoever shot me, is an arsehole." He laughed, well truth be told it was more of a huff than a laugh. As he met her eyes, dull and lacking life, all he could see was what they lost. And it enraged him. Call him selfish, call him inhuman, but he didn't want to feel anything in regards to what she had lost. That didn't mean the waves of loss didn't come however. Having to look at her now, seeing her pain and her emotionless demeanour, all he could feel was the pain of what they had lost. It was hers, it was theirs.

He would swear she'd tried to smile too. As if she was still trapped in those first few moments of awakening, where you truly don't know who you are or where you are. Where the world is a foreign place and the evil spirits are just fictional creations of the mind. But then it started to come to her and the smile melted, replaced with a pout and tear filled eyes.

"No, relax." Jim tried to stop it from happening, but it was no use. "Katherine..." The effects on her emotions started first, her face changing every second depending on what she was remembering. Then her hands started to shake before they came and held Jim's face just centimetres away from her own. "Kat..." He never called her that. She hated that...he hated that. But in that moment it felt right. For one short, shining moment they weren't the couple that surrounded the name 'Moriarty'. They weren't at the top of any food chain or the eyes which glowed in the dark. They were just them, as true natured as the day either of them were born.

It was like he had taken one bid step back from himself, away from the bullets and the bad guys. He stopped being the villain for once and put all of his focus on her, just her.

"It's okay, it's okay." Her sobs soon filled the room and with it came her pleas for him. They made no real sense but they were for him.

"What..." Katherine's speech started small but developed quickly. "Who...what did they do?" Her head thrashed back and forth, looking past Jim and around him for other bystanders. "They, they hurt.-"

"Shh I know, I'm sorry." He kissed her wrist and then her forehead, keeping his face close to hers. She was warm, and sticky and she smelt like blood and bleach.

"My head hurts." She closed her eyes again, squeezing them shut almost as hard as she squeezed his hand. "I feel sick." Jim pulled back and sat back in his seat but left his hand in her hair. She was panting for breath, sucking the air in through her teeth as the room spun.

"Take a second, breathe." His accent was calming instead of deadly for once. Katherine sighed and rubbed her thumb over his, giving it a tug to come closer. He felt like a yoyo, bouncing back and forwards to her side at her command. "Hey..." Jim smiled at her when she weakly cracked her eyes opened again but she could only find the energy to whimper.

"Who were those people? Who were they Jim?" As it all came back to her in drips and rats, her hearts started to race for a second time. Every time she blinked, there they were in front of her wearing cheap surgical masks and holding her down. One of them held her head as another forced a wooden paddle into her mouth so she didn't bite down on her tongue in the pain. Then the man, the one who wore the sickly shade of green and kept smiling at her, would dig his fingers into the open would in her shoulder in search for the bullet. "Why did they do that?"

"I...I don't know." Jim knew why. It was because they were corrupt. Unlike Frank Phillips who had turned into the Private Practise for money, Swanson had fell into serving the underbelly of society plainly because he was a street rat himself. Jim had trusted him once upon a time, he used to be good despite his nature, but over the years standards fell and the prices rose. He knew he was taking a risk taking her there, but he never thought it would turn out this badly.

Involuntarily, Jim's head fell forward onto her chest and his hand let go of hers to spread across her stomach. He made sure to be light with her and to avoid her injury, but he couldn't help himself and when his cheek rested against the soft flatness of her stomach, he choked on his own loss.

"Jim?"

"I'm sorry. I put you through that." She was confused. Her own emotions were still running high and swirling around her head like a hurricane, on top of that it felt like every organ in her body was on fire but was experiencing it all as if her was floating above her own body. Nothing was clear. Once Jim started to speak into her belly, sounding as if he too was sobbing, it may as well have all been a dream.

She never imagined she'd see him vulnerable. She never wished to see him in such a state. If he was like that there had to be a true reason, and if that reason was herself, she didn't know what she would do. Everything...nothing made sense.

"Jim." She called to him this time, rather than questioning him and pulled him by his shirt collar so she could see him. "It's not your fault." Even through everything she was feeling, she still needed to comfort him. No matter what pain was ripping through her, she had to calm him down. He was her rock, her protector and her husband and if he wasn't calm, there was no hope for her.

"I took you there, I let them. I heard you scream and didn't even try to stop them." Katherine placed a finger over his lips and sighed heavily.

"But I'm here aren't I?" Katherine tried to organise his hair which had become sloppy and loose from its gelled do. He'd been here for a long time, that discovery alone helped her smile break through. "I'm alive...aren't I?"

Jim watched her look around her sceptically and nodded. "Yes." Just barely. But overall she was right and if she could find it in her to smile, so could he. But he had to keep reminding himself that she was right, as every few seconds, his attention refocused on what used to be planted below his hand, in her belly. "Yes." He shook the thoughts from his head and kissed her softly. "Forgive me?"

"Every time." Katherine whispered, voice barely a whisper. She couldn't kiss him back as much as she wanted to when their lips met again, but his kisses moved across her cheek and down onto her collar bone soothingly. Her eyes glazed over at the feeling, until her shoulder became noticeably itchy and once again, that doctor stared down at her in the damp darkness. Katherine blinked and he disappeared, but her curiosity remained. "What happened to them?"

"Dead, all of them." Jim explained easily, lips hovering over her protruding shoulder bone. She was so small these days. She barely had the energy to carry herself never mind another life, he should have taken better care of her. "You're at Doctor Phillips place, he...made up for what they...lacked." He knelt on his elbows which rested on the side of her bed, holding his hand between his so his lips graced her knuckles as he spoke. "You're going to be fine, as long as you do what he says." It would get worse. Her calmness had overwhelmed him but it was only because she was still to week to remember everything and register the pain. The worst was yet to come. Once the tiredness wore off and the fear penetrated, that would be when she would have to fight. But he'd be there, even if it ruined him.

After silence had overruled them for longer than Jim was comfortable with, he kissed each finger to get her attention and drummed a beat on her belly. He had every intention of distracting her from all that had been the past 24 hours but then he felt the muscles in her abdomen tense and he shivered.

"Why do I get the feeling, that you're not telling me the truth?" The question came too sudden and he looked at her blankly.

She knew him, better than he thought. She could see through his lies, most of the time, and he could tell exactly what he was feeling through those eyes. Those eyes hid so much from others but told her everything she needed to know. Right now, they were dark with anger, and empty with...something she hadn't seen before.

Katherine looked between each iris and shook her head. Her mouth opened and closed but the mystery words were never spoken, each time she stopped herself and attempted to start again. But then the same would happen. In the end, she just bit the bullet and said the first thing she thought of.

"Am I going to die?"

Instantly, Moriarty shook his head. "No...no of course not. I wouldn't let that happen."

"Then what is it?" Katherine swallowed hard and tried to stop the worry from sweeping over her, but she just couldn't help it. Jim was too quiet, too hesitant. "Jim, you're scaring me."

His long pause caused more fear to bubble up inside her chest than there had been when blood was running down her chest, pooling on her shirt. Jim's pupils which had dilated to the size of a pin head just stared at her. His hand went from being across his mouth, to her wrist, back to his mouth and then into his hair. He was a mess.

"Jim...Jim please, just..."

He couldn't look at her. Once he said the words which were being prepared, he feared he'd never be able to look at her again.

"You were pregnant."

For three little words, there was an awful lot to take in.

At first, Jim thought she hadn't heard him. He thought maybe he hadn't actually said it. But then she scoffed in disbelief. On top of the confusion which already plagued her, piled even more. Katherine made that first nervous sign of laughter but less than a second later it had melted into a frown.

"No." She sighed hard and then parted her lips, shaking her head. "No."

'Pregnant' had been a word she never thought to hear since she was a very young girl. She wasn't a mother, she had never thought she be a wife. There was a baby inside her. Or was there. It was then that the 'were' kicked in. All to suddenly, Jim's word became reality and she sobbed. Her hand came up to cover her mouth and she stared at the ceiling above her.

"Katherine?" She felt him caressing her skin, but it didn't do anything. "Kat."

"I can't have been, I'd have known."

"You were only two months in." Maybe even a tiny bit more. For what was possibly 10 weeks, she had carried a part of him and he'd let her walk the streets knowing the threat, he'd forced her into the reach of the government every day. 10 weeks. Only 4 weeks ago he had hit her, knocking her to the ground over some stupid Sherlock issue.

"I still would have known." There was only desperation in her eyes the next time she looked at him and it made something in him twist. There's that feeling you get, when you see something horrible with your own eyes, like a phantom pain. Something in his chest stung, while his abdomen teared open. She looked so sure it burned him. "It's not true, they're wrong."

"Darling-"

"They are wrong!" He had tried to comfort her but her sudden burst of anger pushed him back, a move she instantly regretted causing. "They're wrong Jim...they have to be..." There was nothing he could think of to say, so he stayed quiet, gently playing with the ends of her hair. He wanted to make it all go away. "They have to be." With tears starting to fall from her eyes, Jim saw the hurt which finally caught up with her. "I'm sorry." Katherine's voice became a squeak. "I'm so sorry darling."

"Hey. Hey. Don't." Jim moved to hold her but her body was shaking with sobs. "None of this was you. Not of it. You hear me?" He held her face, trying to keep her still while calming her. He only carried on when her eyes focused on him and she nodded. At that point, he gazed at her with as much as he could muster and rested his forehead against hers. "I'm going to find those that did this. I am going to hurt down the men who stole from us...and I'm going to make them regret the day they were born." She was nodding but none of Jim's words fixed her heart. "Those animals will pay. They'll bleed until they beg, and I'll do it all with my own bare hands if I have to."

She didn't want him to. She didn't want Jim to put himself in the firing line, she just... Katherine didn't know what she wanted. Just ten minutes ago everything had seemed achievable. She was alive and she had Jim, she'd been through hell yet again, but everything she had was still there. But now, something unfathomable was missing. A being she hadn't known existed, a strangers life was unaccounted for. It had been stolen and it broke her heart.

"But I should have known. They took them and I didn't even know." Katherine reached out and wrapped her hand around Jim's bicep. In return, his had caressed her waist, holding it just tight enough to tell her he was there. "I want it back. I want it back Jim."

"Come here." Jim didn't hesitate and it a heartbeat he was laying on the bed next to her on his side and pulling her into his chest. He shoulder strung and stretched with the contact, but she didn't care. She needed to be in his arms, she needed to know he didn't blame her and that he was feeling the same way. "Darling...it's okay. It's okay." She would look back at this moment in the future if not for one reason and that was to try and remember how it felt to have his hot tears combining with hers on her cheeks.

Jim would try and kiss them away before they had a chance to fall, the taste salty on his tongue. But Katherine just kept crying. No matter how softly he held her or how hard he kissed her, she couldn't stop.

Of got to the point where he thought she may never stop. That this was Katherine now, broken and robbed of her own flesh and blood. He thought this was them now, torn down and destroyed, everything he built around her demolished. He thought he couldn't feel more human, his heart couldn't be proven more real, and then Katherine's head turned up to him and uttered the words he wished he could forget.

"Can't you fix it? You make everything better all the time. Please?"

"I-I don't know how." He wished he could. He'd turn back time and stand in front of that bullet for her if he could. But it wasn't that easy. "I would if I could darling, but I can't." He held his lips by her temple and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry...I can't."

She didn't speak again after that. Jim didn't know what that meant. He didn't know if she blamed him, if she despised him for not being able to fix it, her silence was the worst.

He didn't try to move until Katherine had slumped against him, having let exhaustion take over. But when he had finally slipped from under her, he was gentle and made sure not to disturb the stitches in her shoulder. Jim even watched her for a while, appreciating the look of peace on her face while he could.

He'd been so involved in her, he didn't know Doctor Phillips had entered until he took the file out the pocket at the end of her bed and coughed.

"She woke up."

"I know." Jim didn't ask how. "If it is alright by you, I'd like to wake her and start running the tests. The sooner we start, the sooner I can discharge her."

Moriarty replied with a nod, never removing her eyes from her form. "She knows. Do what you need to do, just don't hurt her anymore." The Doctor seemed surprised when Jim took a step back then, but he didn't want to watch them wake her, he didn't want to see her face when she remembered all over again. "I need to make a few calls. I'll be back soon."

"Of course." And with that Jim left the room, leaving her to go through it all without him...again.

But he had to have a second to himself, and upon finding himself alone in the waiting room, all his men otherwise assigned throughout the building. He kicked the first thing he saw, which just so happened to be one of the black crooked chairs. It went flying to the other side of the room, soon accompanied by another, and another as he smashed a small coffee table.

And he just kept going, until his knuckles were raw and bleeding and he could no longer feel the pain in his chest due to its racing.

When he was done, various leaflets littered the floor alongside splinters of wood and scraps of leather which had been ripped from the seats by his shoes.

Jim breath was still ragged when he pulled out his phone and dialled the only number he could trust. No matter what his feelings were, no matter how much he was sulking, Sebastian was still his number one and he needed his eyes and his aim in the game.

"Sebastian. I want you to ring the staff at Bellmont, prepare for us to come home." If the sniper felt at all shocked or hesitant at receiving the phone call, he didn't show it in his voice. But he did act more professional than Jim was used to him being for quite sometime. After agreeing however, there was one small pause before he asked about Katherine's state. "She's alive...she..." She was going to need his best men if she was going to get the vengeance she deserved. "After you make those arrangements, I need you and your best men. No more than three." Sebastian agreed on the other end of the phone but was then silenced when Jim hung up.

He needed to keep the operation small and close. Not only did it decrease the likelihood of a mole but he needed what he was about to tell them to die with them. Moriarty paid well but he knew his staff could gossip and what happened in this hospital, if you could even call it that, was not getting out.


	9. Chapter 9

Katherine sat on the edge of the bed, watching on helplessly as Jim paced back and forth with the mobile attached to his ear. The discussion was focused around a meeting of some kind with a client, a one she was meant to be attending this morning. Obviously she was in no state to go and meet a mob boss so Jim had said he'd handle it but...it didn't sound like he was winning.

"I'm aware what his standards are, I have my own. The meeting won't go ahead." He was stressed, she could tell by the droop of his head. "Yes, well, tell him to live with it. I have more serious client complaints to fix." Sarcasm dripped dangerously from his words. "Sort it out."

The last thing they needed was more enemies, but from the sound of things they were upsetting yet another bad guy. Last night, Katherine had been made to stay in the hospital despite Jim's wishes after the Doctor noticed she was still lightly bleeding from the miscarriage. It was probably nothing, that's what his words had been. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

She hadn't been scared or worried about her health. Katherine didn't sit up through the night scared of a complication developing. But she did keep herself up with the phantom sensation of feeling the life leaving her body, not her own, but the child's. It was all in her head of course but...it wouldn't stop no matter how tightly she clung to Jim or how much she tried to forget. He had stayed up with her, holding her hair when she was sick from the Ketamine leaving her system and mumbling in her ear to try and coax sleep. Both of them were now exhausted and emotionally void. They just wanted to go home.

Moriarty stood for a moment with his back to her, then turned as he returned her mobile to the pocket of his suit pants. His clothes were still stained with her blood, almost 48 hours after the shooting. He had refused to leave the hospital and therefor had been forced to remain in his clothes. It was a rare sight, Jim looking so tired and unkept. She didn't like it. It made the reality of it all dawn on her.

"Are you sure it's okay to go home?" Her voice brought him out of whatever trance he was in, and Jim turned to look at her. It took a while for the small smile to develop enough for her to notice it and even then it disappeared quickly.

"More than sure." Walking over to stand in front of Katherine, Jim held her face between his hands ever so lightly and kissed her forehead. "What are you worried about? You have pulled through the hardest, it's just a long recovery." She knew that, but it wasn't herself she was worried about, at least not in regards to her current state. She was worried for them and their safety once they stepped outside this room.

"What about the guy who followed me, who you say knew where to find me? What about him?" As well as laying with her through the night, he had answered every question she had about who shot her. He had tried to keep it just to himself at first but slowly started to spill the details the more she pushed. Turned out he knew who it had came from, most probably, he just needed to find them.

Moriarty let got of her and took a step back, but it was only for a second as then he crouched, forcing her eyes to meet his. "Do you trust me? Katherine do you trust me?" He shouldn't have even had to ask, he should know. Nodding, Katherine gave as much of a smile as she could muster. "You are safe. Now let's go."

Neither of them had any belongings in that room. Katherine wore a loose over sized t-shirt Doctor Phillips had supplied him with and bare legs. He didn't want to waste time having something of hers brought. He would leave in his bloody clothes and she would go with him comfortable and in something that didn't disrupt her stitches. Not that she cared. She just wanted to be where Jim was.

She slid from the bed and wobbled on her feet, still week from spending what was the best of two days in bed. Moriarty's arms shot out to steady her. Who knew getting shot could take so much energy from you?

"Careful." He muttered and wrapped an arm around her waist to aid her steps. However, only one metre into her journey, her legs gave way and she fell a few feet before Jim swooped her. He chuckled at her clumsiness and so did she for a second until he helped her back up.

She was useless to him like this. What need did he had to keep her around if she couldn't even walk herself. Of course she was over dramatising it all, she should have known she'd be like this. But it didn't make her feel any less pathetic. Had it been Jim, he'd be up and jetting across the country by now, not half naked and standing with the help of someone.

Jim pulled her back to her feet and waited until she was steady to lead the way again, but very soon the same happened and although he smiled at her, he wanted to put her back into bed and force her to stay there until she was 100%. But they couldn't stay there, he felt like a sitting duck. His clients knew this side of the world just like he did and very soon news of her survival would spread and they would come looking.

"Come on." Placing one arm under her knees and the other across the small of her back, Moriarty lifted her bridal style. "Don't get used to this." Subconscious, Katherine laid her head against his chest and listened to the sound of his heart beat. It was fast and becoming quicker as he walked out of the room.

"Am I heavy?" She was trying to lighten the mood and it seemed to work as she felt his chest rumble with laughter.

"We need to get you a good meal once we are home." She could think of other things she wanted more...uneatable things. So she'd settle for what he could give her.

"And ice cream?" In that moment, she was a child in his arms. Nothing more than a little girl, dressing in her daddy's clothes and using any excuse to go get ice cream. She was no more than twelve years old, she may as well have been sucking on her thumb.

"And ice cream." He agreed softly as he held her closer, bracing them both for the winter weather about the insult their skin.

Katherine hid her face in his chest as they stepped outside. Thankfully the car was no more than three feet away, mounted of the curb outside the detached building. Jim placed her back on her feet at the door, where thankfully a guard was stood waiting.

"Mrs Moriarty, allow me." The balding man held out his hand and helped her into the seat as Jim went around to his own side. She practically collapsed onto the heated leather with a small whimper as her shoulder jolted. It was her own fault, a fact she had to tell Jim when he climbed in beside her and asked what was wrong.

"Thank you." She spoke to the guard as he shut the door and then walked to climb into the Range Rover behind them.

He had organised and full convoy for them. At the very front was the black Mercedes, manned with two snipers and two guards. Behind that a black fully tinted Range Rover, containing three gunmen and a driver. Their own car followed, accompanying Jim and herself was their most regular driver and Sebastian in the front passenger, a long range rifle sat ready and loaded in his lap. Finally, the second Range Rover filled with another four gunmen and guards covered their backs.

It should have made her feel safer. It should have made her feel secure. But it did the opposite. Jim wanted to protect her but he was going to more lengths to do so than she had ever experienced. Over the years she'd seen her fair share of threats due to the business, of course, but none of them had taken action about them. They were empty sentences used to scare...and she had never scared easy.

But this felt different. This felt serious.

"This is a lot of men." It wasn't a question and it wasn't directed at anyone but she caught Sebastian glancing at her in the mirror and soon, Jim's hand was slowly pulling her into his side.

"Just precaution." She looked up at him, giving enough expression to tell him she wanted to know more. "We're lacking intel. This is just until we learn more." Better to be safe than sorry basically, that had never came out any good for her. "Sleep, close your eyes." But she didn't listen and from the moment the set of, all four cars staying in close proximity, her eyes remained open and staring out of Jim's window.

He let her get on with it for a small while, thinking if it made her happy there was no harm. But then her hands started to shake and her focus became more concentrated out the window. As they drove through the more populated areas, coming to a stop in amongst the traffic, she showed signed of panic as if every other car on the road was the enemy.

"Stop looking for someone who isn't there." Jim whispered in her ear, playing with her hair which was now greasy and thick with tats. The ends were still cemented together with blood. The sure looked like a pair, but safety was more important than hygiene.

Katherine didn't have a response with him but she took his hand and laced their fingers, trying to relax. On the radio, a soft song was playing, just loud enough for it to be clear in the back of the car.

Life once this was over would be confusing. Would it ever be over? Was the first first question that came to her head. Could it ever be over? When she used to have the time to watch TV, to binge in the dramas of 'real life', they never got over this sort of stuff. As soon as a couple lost a baby that was it. They were over. They were work through it together and cry together, but a year or so down the line the husband would meet someone young and independent and happy and he would begin an affair. He would fall in love with beauty while the wife lounged in her depression. Once the affair was out...well that depended on the program. Either the wife would get jealous and kill them in a passion filled blood spree, or she would leave and later find the real love of her life while the husband discovered his new happiness wasn't really real.

God, did she really used to watch so much crap on tv? Even if she did, she didn't know which outcome she'd rather come true. Maybe it would be neither? Maybe they would get over it...Jim definitely would. She knew it. And she would too. She would. It would just take time. To get over it, first she had to understand it and that's what she'd work on first.

So she'd been pregnant...it didn't mean anything. How was she meant to have a child anyway? The Moriarty's with a child? Preposterous. Princesses and princes existed on the side of the angels, not with them. It was for the best, it would have ended in tragedy anyway.

As for everything else...her shoulder would heal and once Jim found those who caused this she'd be back out in the field, just like she was. Nothing would have changed. It would be fine. They'd be...they would be Jim and Katherine Moriarty.

Her thinking led to her eyes closing, which led to her falling deeper into his chest. Before long she was asleep finally. Her foot twitched as she fell deeper, which was what caught Jim's attention. He looked down at her and for the first time managed to smile without any real effort.

"How is she?" Sebastian waited until he was sure Katherine was asleep and judging by her small smile, she was stone out. No one could smile after what they'd been though...accept maybe her. She was the thoughts women he'd ever met.

"As to be expected." Jim looked up, causing the snipers eyes to move back, looking out the front window. He felt...not bad but...awkward for what he had said to him. He wasn't saying he wasn't right and the guys feeling weren't true, but he had saved her life with his quick acting. "I'm sorry Sebastian." The words left a sour taste in his mouth and they obviously surprised Seb as much as himself as a scoff came from the front seat.

"Can I get that on tape?" The blonde didn't expect a reply and shook his head. But a moment later the seriousness fell back over them and he muttered. "What's the plan?"

"Kill the sick bastards and feed them to the dogs."

He should have expected as much. But there was one small question, the big plan. The job Jim had had him gathering intel for, for months now.

"What about Sherlock?"

"Sherlock Holmes can wait."

That was a bold statement, coming from him. The detective, or so he called himself, had been the centre of Jim's world since...well he wasn't quite sure when. A part of him questioned whether it was a new obsession or something which stemmed far further back than he could imagine. He'd never seen him so deep in a case, he definitely hadn't witnessed Jim care so much about someone who had not directly crossed his path.

For his to be putting all that aside, for her, spoke louder than anything Jim had done since she walked into their lives. But, seeing how Jim was watching her now with such content but sadness, it was no wonder why he was doing it. Maybe, after two years of marriage, he'd finally come to his senses.

* * *

Katherine was asleep for most of the drive. She only woke up when they were driving into the deserted countryside. There was no one around for her to look for anymore, no dark high rise windows to be afraid of.

Her body shifted, but she had forgotten about her shoulder and instantly regretted the movement.

"Carful there, Sleeping Beauty." Jim's voice instantly soothed her, that was until his hand drew circles on her back and he insulted her. "You need a wash. You're sticky." She had a right to be, she'd been in bed for...for...was it 2 days?

"What day is it?" She asked the whole car, voice still husky from sleep.

"Monday." Moriarty answered easily, calming her. It had only been two days. Why did it feel like two weeks?

"The 22nd?" Katherine said after a slow calculation. But the result made her frown. "Its almost Christmas...I got shot for Christmas." Her body slowly rose and with Jim's help she pushed herself up into her own seat. "Your clients need to practise their gestures of thanks." He found that this was the case. When she awoke, even after dozing for just a couple of minutes, she'd almost be back to her old self. He'd thought it was just her recoding for the first few times, but then it dawned on him that she simply hadn't remembered yet. Jim knew what was coming, but it didn't stop him from appreciating her obliviousness.

"I'll make sure a memo is handed out immediately." He smiled at her and she returned it so easily. He didn't want her to remember, he'd do anything to just make her forget. To remove that small part of her brain that was causing so much sadness.

"Where are the dogs?" Her whole demeanour was different, she seemed almost jolly. The wound didn't matter, the fear wasn't there. She was the strong and unfazed Katherine who had left the apartment Saturday morning. It led Jim to believe she wasn't scared for her, she was scared of what they had took and that they would take more.

"Awaiting the arrival of their mommy at Bellmont." He said it without thinking, his voice taking on a carefree, fake American drawl. And her response was positive, for a couple of seconds. Then, just like he expected, the darkness descended over her as the memories came flooding back. At first she took a deep breath and released it slowly and then she just smiled at him and nervously played with her hands on top on her bare thighs. "Darling, I'm sorry." Jim's chest tightened and he tried to reach for her, but Katherine stopped him. At least he thought she was pushing him away, until she crawled into his lap.

"What for? It's fine..." She kissed his lips lightly, and then the corner of his mouth and then his jaw. She chuckled but it was forced, so Jim took her face and turned it so he could rich her lips again. "How much longer?" She whispered into his mouth.

"Less than an hour." Both of their eyes were closed and their warmth radiated from one another. Jim's hands found their way up the back of her thighs as she had moved to straddle him and she smiled.

Opening his eyes, Jim saw she still looked empty but this was her attempt at trying. She was trying to distract herself. Whether it was sensible to do so, in such a way, in front of his staff was questionable. But he didn't care, as long as she was smiling.

"What am I supposed to tell our good friend Mr Mycroft?"

"I'll talk you through calling one of them, you will tell them you won't be in until future notice."

"And what if they deem that unacceptable?" The likelihood of them letting her go was higher than them working with them. But they had to have a boringly average excuse, the less suspicion the better when dealing with those type.

"Then screw them, you've slaved enough for them, we have most of what we went in for." If Mycroft Holmes would rather replace her that wait for her then so be it. He would find another way in, a way which didn't compromise her safety.

The whole operation could wait, large developments could turn into baby steps. There was better things she could be doing anyway, he wanted her in deeper in the end and they had to start making progress soon if she was going to do it in the next few years at the earliest. Nothing like that came easy or quick, she had been injected into Mycroft's life but he needed her closer. Besides, Mycroft only showed his face on the rare occasion and even then it was lunch orders. She was being wasted.

"You okay, darling?" He was pulled from his thoughts when Katherine started to trace the blood patterns on his shirt. Now brown and dry, it didn't look as bad as it had fresh, but it was still sickening...though be it sweet. Her blood covering him showed a side of possession she had never imagined. It was romantically gory...she was definitely still feeling the effects of the drugs.

"I'll ring them once we arrive." She spoke, moving back to her own seat where she remained for the rest of the drive.


	10. Chapter 10

"They took it well...I think. I told them there had been a loss, they said to keep them updated on when I'd be back but to take all the time I needed." Moriarty was forced to look up from the computer as Katherine entered his office, unannounced. She was quite a fan of doing so since they'd arrived at the house yesterday. Walking wherever she wanted, when she wanted, no matter how many times he ordered her to rest and stay indoors.

It was like she'd woke up this morning and suddenly stopped caring about her wellbeing. When he asked how she was, she only shrugged. He had ordered five more men to cover her every movement subtly as a result, the last thing he needed was her to feel like she had nothing to live for.

"I didn't think the government offices would be so understanding." Jim joked, resting his elbows on his desk as she sauntered over, her arm on the side of the wound wrapped over her chest. She refused to wear a sling. 'It didn't go with her dress', although he would barely call it a dress. More of a baby blue silk slip with a cream cashmere cardigan over the top. Her bare legs seemed to never end and she almost looked angelic with her hair pulled up and barely any make up on.

Normally he would disapprove, but then again normally she loved playing dress up. With a worried frown, he pushed his chair back and sighed heavily, but it alarmed her.

"Come here." Katherine was practically cooing at him when she walked around to perch on the end of his desk. "What is worrying you? You've been quiet all day." If he admitted to her that it was she worrying him, he might never live it down with his own inner self. But she was. He had mounted her on a pedestal for all to see, for all to get to and it had back fired. Not only was he worried for her safety still, and the quality of her own mind, but he was stressed trying to work out a way to push her back up there. "Jim?" She pushed a hand through his hair and massaged behind his ear.

"Nothing. Busy." He took her wrist and kissed it before lowering it back to her side.

"Jim?"

Without thinking, he slammed his hands on the desk and snapped at her. "Aren't you supposed to be resting?" The sudden behaviour caused her to jump up from his desk, lightly jolting her shoulder but she didn't show it. Instead, Katherine simply turned in the direction to leave him.

"Fine. My apologies." She should have known better. Two nights of him holding her and crying with her didn't rewrite the past three years. That's why, when she felt his hand wrap around her wrist tight, she tried to throw him off. "Hey-" She tried to fight his casual abuse until his lips crushed hers and she was pushed until her lower back was bruised by his desk.

"Look at me. Look at me." With his hand wrapped around her neck, he forced her to meet his eyes. But all she saw in them was worry. No anger, no frustration. There was something anguishing about them and something she'd never seen before. "You're beautiful." Jim held her still until her felt her swallow hard, then his grip released and his hand melted down her chest. "You are...you are..."

Almost too suddenly, Katherine kissed him back with everything she had. Without thinking, her hands began pulling at his jacket and soon enough it was thrown on the floor and her hands were back in his hair. Jim's mouth moved to her neck and her thighs were parted enough for him to stand between, pushing the hem of her slip up by an inch so his fingers could wrap around her underwear.

"Stop." Katherine breathed, but couldn't help the moan from escaping when he hit down on her throat. "Jim stop, I can't." She took hold of his hands before he could remove anything and then went to touch his chest, but he was too quick and stepped back. "Not because...the doctor he..." She did want him...she did but it wasn't, approved.

Since when were they ones to listen to others? It was all so very ironic. But it was for the best. And when Jim looked at her and saw the passion in her eyes, she didn't feel unreachable but it was still disappointing.

"Go get cleaned up. I'll see you at dinner." Jim kept his distance and slapped her thigh gently. But she didn't move.

"Can I not stay a bit?" Katherine was biting her lip and pulling the end of her dress down, although it barely covered anymore of her. "It...they aren't good company out there." Sebastian was out on the hunt for her favourite shooter and the rest of the staff were scared of her. "I want someone to play with."

Unable to stop himself, Jim smirked and sat down in his chair and pointed to the seat facing his desk just a few feet away. "Sit."

She sat there for a good five minutes, silently. Jim knew it wouldn't last however, it never did. He'd give her three more minutes maximum and then he'd check her pulse for signs of life if she hadn't made a noise.

"Can I help?" She asked lightly but already expecting him to say no as she fidgeted in her seat. As deep as she was in field work these days there was always those things he still kept hidden. The 'surprises' or the 'strictly confidential' notes that not even she saw unless it was on a strictly need to know basis.

Thankfully he worded his disapproval in a nicer way. "Do you know how to negotiate with a low key terrorist group from South America?" She smirked at first then gave a slow, playful shrug. "Come here." She was almost giddy when she slid onto his lap, swinging her long legs around so he could push them closer the the computer. His system was loaded up, the database spewing names and numbers and currencies...then at the bottom, a chat room. Katherine watched carefully as he selected a name, type in key details to the file and then opened up the chat room. It seemed a delightful conversation between M and Whiskey was going on.

"This is how we speak to the men who are too dangerous to know a voice, never mind a face." Jim explained quickly, fiddling with the keyboard and windows which were open on screen before passing her the controls. "Type something." She gave him a look which resembled that of a deer in headlights. With a gaping mouth, Katherine looked between Jim and the computer trying to deduct whether he was actually serious.

After his smile started to sag, replaced by impatience, she stopped waiting for the punch line and hovered her fingers above the keys. "Like what?"

"Anything."

"But they'll see it." For the first time since coming home, Katherine looked unplagued through his eyes. She was too busy thinking, working, to worry about anything else. She enjoyed his work an amusing amount, and she was good at it. Even if they weren't married he'd have kept her around for her work. "They'll read it as you." She pointed at the blinking curser on the screen and blinked at him.

"From anonymous." Jim trailed off. "What? You scared?" With her lips purse, Katherine tried not to smack him. Scared? She would not be scared. They were probably no more clever than the dirt on her shoes. "Katherine Moriarty, scared of a name on a computer screen?" Her hands were as steady as anything, no fear. Her brain was working at a mile a minute trying to think of something good and a second later she hit jackpot. "Attagirl." Her fingers typed slow but precise and every few moments she would stop, bite her lip, tilt her head and then continue. Once done, she awaited no approval and hit send before leaning back against his chest.

'Ready to play? Or have you got a better offer? - M

"Now what?" Before Jim could say anything, the small bubble started to dance as the recipient began typing.

'Name your price?' - Whiskey

"Well it got a response..." With a small smirk he poked her in the side and waved his arms for her to get back to work. "Now try to make them give me one million dollars."

"Only one million?" Katherine paused and frowned. That was pennies for them, he wasn't kidding when he said low key. All of a sudden she had a lot more confidence towards speaking to them. "I'll not hold out for a good Christmas present then."

She sat there for hours. It was dark outside by the time she left Jim's office, escorted by him so they could get something to eat. Not only had she done a good job but she had managed to go hours without even thinking of the events to take place the past week. All of a sudden there was no loss, there was no fear, there was no anything. She was having fun, laughing as she sent messages to these killers and demanded their money, money Jim's account would shortly receive all down to her.

It gave Jim an idea. If she was going to grow and become everything she once was, she was going to have to work for it, quite literally.

* * *

Days later had not improved her. Even a minute or two after awaking, when she realised the date, it still didn't not cheer her up...well maybe a bit. She was thankful that the news of her loss had taken away from the shooting. She barely ever found herself thinking about those moments, when she was laying conscious on that hospital bed. Don't get her wrong, the images sent a deep chilly shiver down her spine but as soon as she thought of the child it all melted away. Her own pain didn't matter, all that mattered was the innocent life lost. She didn't have nightmares of being shot at or strapped down. But she did occasionally wake with a phantom pain in her lower abdomen. It would melt away as soon as she opened her eyes but she swore it had been there, a small kick as Moriarty lay beside her. But there was nothing there, nothing at all.

The only time she seemed to be genuinely happy in the past few days was when she was working. After that day spent in Moriarty's office she'd had been stupid to think it would continue. The next day she'd knocked on his door but she'd been marched straight back out after being handed a laptop to work with in bed. He was giving her work but he valued his privacy. So for the past two days she'd been sat creating new identities for fraud cases and completing background checks on the seemingly innocent. She'd been involved, so much so she barely found herself thinking about...those sorts of things.

Katherine wrapped a floor length silk robe around herself and tied the knot at her waist as she left the master bedroom and descended the broad staircase. He was already in the dining room when she enter, sat in his usual place with every paper, from most countries, piled up in front of him. It was the same, every morning, and the date hadn't changed his morning routine.

"Merry Christmas." She stood in the threshold of the dining room door for a couple of seconds and watched him. Some French paper lay open at the minute, god knows what he'd been doing to end up related to a story in there.

He seemed to be ignoring her, until his brow rose and he looked up at her. "Are we really going to do this?"

Katherine chuckled and joined him at the table. "Would it kill you to humour me, just one year?"

It really did pain him. Every year was the same. He started out winning but as each year went by she pushed harder and harder and he was slowly beginning to realise the day went by a lot easier if her just repeated the words.

"Merry Christmas, sweetheart." Only Jim Moriarty could make it sound like a threat.

"Thank you." She gave a smug grin, which he ignored and stole one of his papers. The headline read 'Housing Market Won't Recover Until 2014'. Ah the credit crunch, she pitied the thousands that were going through such hard times. What must it be like to have such pointless worries? She barely remembered...the time between worrying about bills and worrying about assassins was a blur now. It was all so obsolete.

She grew bored of the article and the silence after only a couple of sentences, so she returned the paper to the pile and quirked an eyebrow at Jim. "So, what's on the itinerary for today?"

"Same as every other day." He heard her huff as well as seeing it in the corner of his eye. "We've talked about this."

"No we haven't. You talked about it, I sat there pretending to listen but not agreeing."

Jim dropped the paper just enough to be able to look at her head on. "Can I expect you to be this stubborn all day?"

"For the remainder of the festive period, yes." Katherine poured her own cup of tea and threw her spoon down in time to make her point. It was childish, yes, but it was also Christmas.

He gave a long sigh and sat up straight, ignoring her hard stare. Every year...every year she was the same and the harder he tried to ignore her the more stubborn the woman was. Normally it got noon and he would give in but not this time. He didn't care if she was having a hard time or if they were both struggling to get out of the rut they were in, he wouldn't loose this year.

"Then what would you have me do, hmm? Dress up in a red suit and and have the dogs dress as rudolf and drag you around on a sleigh?"

"Yes." Katherine had to fight her grin hard but it broke out in the end and she stood, walking to stand behind him as her arms wrapped around his neck. "Besides, you've been very bad all year Mr Moriarty. You deserve a break." Her chin rested on his shoulder while he involuntarily caressed her arm. "Please?" With a kiss planted on his neck, Jim rolled his eyes. She wouldn't win.

"You still haven't told me what you want to do."

"Anything! Go for a walk-"

"You're resting." So maybe walking wasn't her strongest skill at the moment...

"Bake a pudding-"

"You can't cook." So maybe baking wasn't even her best talent...

"Watch a god awful film that has a Christmas song in the title." Jim didn't interrupt this time and she giggled. "Come on. Watch a cheesy film with me darling." Rubbing his shoulders with just the right amount of pressure, he was close to admitting defeat. But he had work to do, and she had to start learning that she wasn't always going to get her way after she'd been spoilt over the past couple of days...even if it was Christmas.

"If I give you a present, will you leave me alone?" He may not have believed in Christmas, or at least the glee of it all, but he did have a present for her. Mind from the amount of presents she got, every week might as well have been Christmas.

Katherine hummed in his ear and played with the knot of his tie. When he was just about ready to hit her, she smiled. "...Maybe."

"Well tough, you have to wait until tonight." He had a real gift but to go with it he also had a special project, a big one. Call it the gift that would keep on giving, for many years to come if she did well. He needed the day alone to finish setting it up, working out the paths she could take and the ones he would make her take. He was actually excited for it.

"James-"

"If you let me work." He took her hand and detached it from him. After pulling her down for a single kiss, he tapped her behind to send her back to her seat.

"Fine...but it better be worth it!"

* * *

6pm on Christmas Day evening and she was lying in bed, alone, in the dark watching Home Alone. She'd done it all. Watched the Queens Speech, the TV specials, sang along to carols on song of praise. Alone. He hadn't even come up to check on her once. Actually, the only person to pop their head into the room was a maid telling her lunch was ready and dinner would be served late upon Mr Moriarty's request.

It was boring. Creating profiles and fake passports had become boring. Her day had dragged. It never used to drag, and it probably would have never dragged again if she had a child to entertain. They could go out walking, build up an appetite. Open all of the presents which had been left by Santa and watch for hours as they played with each one. She could sign and dance with them, curl up by the fire and watch films with them for hours.

She had never wanted any of that, but ever since it was stolen from her it was ass she wanted. That's what she should have had, not what they could have.

"You rang." Katherine jumped in her place on the bed and gave a small yelp at his sudden presence in the door. She had called for him...an hour ago. God bless the maid she'd asked to summon him.

"I'm bored!" She was met with a vacant stare. "There's...nothing to do. Nowhere to go." Her voice mellowed out but his steps into the room were even boring. Slow and considered. He was trying to irritate her, she was sure of it.

"People who have been shot are normally quite stationary."

"Yes well, my minds asking me to keep it busy." One more day. One more day he'd allow her to play that card and then he was putting his foot down. Yes, she was upset, they both were. She'd also been through a traumatic event and was scared but most of his men had suffered the same fate, yet they were out there hunting down the man who brought down their queen.

She had to leant that there was still things to do. The world didn't simply come to a stop because She fell into a bullet and a child without yet a conscious died. The world kept spinning, and she had to keep on turning with it. No more moping after today, no more sloppiness and crying over spilt milk.

Thankfully, for his sanity and her safety, he had the perfect thing. She would be able to spend hours on it in the house without getting too bored, hopefully, and it was just the right amount of sinister for her to enjoy herself.

"You want a job?" Moriarty asked, taking his hands from his pockets and sitting on the end of the bed. Katherine nodded and shuffled closer, wrapping her arms around her knees. It was a good job she was cute, because god was she irritating him. "It's a biggy. I'll be expecting a lot from you."

"I'm hoping for a lot." She muttered lowly under her breath, chin resting on her upper arm.

"It might be dangerous." All she did was simply raise a brow as if it didn't bother her. Good. "And...well it's a 24 hour job."

"I'm married to you. I'm used to 24 hour jobs."

There she was. There was that killers smile, white pearly teeth ready to bite the balls off the big boys. He just had to keep tempting out that wit.

"Ow, feisty." Jim's hand started at her ankle, but for the nth time that week, soon ended up on her hip. He pushed her back onto the bed and situated himself over her, between her thighs. There was something about her strength sometimes that drove him to need her. "You're distracting me again."

"I didn't do anything." Katherine smiled and pulled him down just enough to be able to kiss him. "You just can't wait to fuck me."

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Hardly, you forbid me from contacting her." Her confidence had increased over the past couple of days so much she was almost reckless. Her tongue had venom and it was potent enough to kill sometimes. He'd noticed it here and there, sometimes wondering whether it was a strength or weakness of her recovery.

The verdict on that could wait. Right now, it would be useful.

"Stop begging for a punishment." Moriarty laughed and pulled her up from the bed, moving her so she straddled his knee, all the while trying not to pull her shoulder. "I know you're bored, but you don't have to misbehave."

"I want my present. It's Christmas." Finally admitting defeat, Jim leant over and removed the small, wrapped gift from the draw of the bedside cabinet on his side of the bed. Her eyes were already studying it as he raised it to hover in front of her face.

"Merry Christmas." He quickly kissed her cheek and dropped it into her hands.

It was light and...hard. It resembled something so held every day and also something of his which she loathed when trying to have a decent conversation, but why would he have got her that. With a raised brow, Katherine's exchanged looks between Jim and the present as her fingers tore at the paper.

It didn't take long to reveal what it was, and when she did she was...speechless. Definitely speechless.

"It's a phone."

"That's right." Katherine continued to stare at him blankly, waiting for an explanation to come, but it never did. So she tossed the iPhone in her hand a couple of times. It was new, space grey wrapped in a gold case.

"It's a...a...a phone." She tried again. "I have a phone."

"And I got you another one." The silence resumed. She was ready to punch him due to her impatience.

"Aww...no...nope I don't get it." Looking at Jim, she ignored his smirk and asked. "What's it for?"

"I couldn't have you using your own phone for such a job. This is strictly for one thing." The pause was painful, but if she had known what he was going to say, she would have wished him to be silent longer. "You're going to contact Sherlock Holmes."

At first, Katherine's shoulders shrugged in amusement. "Ha...haha, that's funny." Crawling off Jim's knee, she walked half way across the room before spinning around and chucking the phone at him. "Okay, you got me! What's my real present?" She knew it was a long shot and his silence confirmed that it wasn't a joke. "No...no...I'm not, no I refuse."

"You refuse?!" Jim's eyes were wide in amusement.

"Yes, I refuse. Were you listening to me when I told you about him? He's rude, he is ignorant, more so than his brother and that's saying something. And anyway, much to your disappointment, I don't think he's much of a talker." There was no way. There was field work and then there was mundane chores no one else wanted to do. This could gratefully added to that long list.

She would not be the one to contact that...android of a human.

"I only want you to text him." He retrieved the phone from where it had landed at the head of the bed and unlocked it, double checking everything was there. The GPS was untraceable, it only held one contact which was Sherlock and everything else was empty. No personal information, no photos, no anything. Just one number and a signal.

"What for?" Katherine approached Jim and stood, knees touching, with her arms crossed and her eyes glaring down at him. "Tell me what for and I'll consider it."

"It's time." Moriarty explained, looking up at her through his lashes with an opened mouth. His hands were entertained by the phone, flipping it and fondling it. "I need you. You are my ace Katherine. You're the only one I can trust."

All those meetings, all that training had led to this. In Jim's mind, he had planned for a much calmer run up. But the recent turbulence had provided a good opportunity. She needed the distraction and what was a better distraction then trying to get a rise out of a detective through text?

"Well that's true..." Sarcasm laced her words. "But still...isn't is risky? I already have enough people out to get me."

"He isn't like that. That's what I've been looking into for the past few months." Sherlock Holmes was a man who liked nothing more than to solve murders, not cause them. That much was evident. "He won't kill, he won't hire to kill, he might try to find out who you are but that's what we want."

"You want him to find me?" Katherine raised her eyebrow and scoffed.

"I want him to want to find you. But he won't be able to and it will just drive him to respond more." She was going to drive him wild. Katherine, his little minx, was going to inject herself in their lives even deeper than some receptionist and bring Sherlock into the limelight.

"You think he'll reply?"

"I know he will." He'd be too curious not too. "Get a rise out of him. Make him need you."

She wasn't sure...she, what would she possibly say? Oh hey, how's it hanging? It was a daft idea, but it couldn't have been because it was Jim's idea. "For how long?"

"The foreseeable future." As long as he needed her too, he was sure Sherlock wouldn't let her go easily, not until he caught her and he never would. Just like he'd promised her, he wouldn't touch her. Upon hearing it wasn't a one hour job, she pouted and avoided his eyes. "Just texting...you never know. You may grow to like him and end up running away together in a romantic affair."

"Hmm, you'd like that wouldn't you?" Katherine hummed and disregarded his sneer, she wasn't in the mood. This was not something she fancied doing, she definitely didn't accept Sherlock as her Christmas present, but she knew the task was inevitable. "Just promise me something? If this gets dangerous, if it gets difficult or quite frankly he just becomes a pain in my arse. You'll let me stop." He nodded his head 'yes' but then he broke out in a grin and changed it to 'no'.

When Katherine's face fell, he laughed and pulled her down onto his knee again. "I'll consider it." He started on her neck first, then moved her her collar bone, nipping at it gently.

"What do you want me to say first?" She tried not to moan as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Anything. This is all yours." He picked her up and turned her so that her back was against the mattress and he was once again on top of her. "Just tell me if anything fun happens, you know I like games."

"Hmm. You want to play a game with me?" Her hand tugged on the hair at the nape of his neck and he started removing his shirt. She didn't want to discuss it anymore so she'd distract him. "It's called Jim gets his Christmas present."


	11. Chapter 11

Christmas Day had ended much like it had started, with Katherine in bed alone awaiting Jim to finish work. After their 'small break' they had gone downstairs to eat a dinner which turned out to be quite traditional. But then Moriarty had disappeared behind his office door and left her to entertain herself.

Fluffing the pillows up behind her, Katherine fell back with her full bowl of homemade chocolate brownies and ice cream, the rest of the tub sat next to her on the table and for once she didn't feel guilty. Christmas was a time for gluttony and after three years of dieting and a week of hell she deserved it. So, putting on some horrendous TV show and getting comfortable, she indulged. Jim wasn't there to judge her and the staff had retired for the evening. Her 'festive' agreement had been make good brownies and they can all leave early.

Well...she had her brownies and she was happy. Or at least she was content.

Beside her on the bed lay that pesky phone. Upon entering the bedroom she had picked it up, unlocked it then threw it down and walked away to have a bath. But it would not stop whispering her name in the darkness. She hated to admit it but...she was somewhat tempted. She was curious as to whether she would get a response if she texted and what he would reply with if he did, and how a conversation might develop. Of course, she had met and talked to both Holmes and brother in person but maybe they'd be more approachable though technology. They were intriguing after all, if not unbelievably rude at the same time.

9:15pm...he'd be asleep already, there was no point. However the rational tempted side of her brain soon shouted up that no one under the age of 4 went to bed this early, especially on Christmas. But he would be busy, if she was to text him she wanted him to see it and react immediately. She wanted to make an impact. Then again it was Christmas Day, a message from a stranger on such a day was more dramatic than any other day...

Katherine picked up the phone after spooning another large chunk of warm gooey brownie into her mouth. It didn't take long to select the contact and create a new message, the hard part was thinking of what to say.

She drafter several different first lines. Some of them complex, resembling small novels and other short and mysterious. In the end she settled for something simple and maybe even fun, be it a little predictable. But Katherine was predictable for the most part, and fun. She liked it, so after several more minutes of staring she took a deep breath and hit send.

 **To: Sherlock Holmes**

 **Merry Christmas, Mr Holmes.**

 **K.I.M xx**

The phone was thrown to the end of the bed then as if it was going to bite her. But she just didn't want it to be a distraction. She didn't want to be like a school girl constantly checking for a reply, not that she would. She hoped he wouldn't reply...that way this stupid idea could come to an end.

* * *

It was a normal Christmas, by the Holmes standard. An evening spent in the cottage of mum and dad, each sibling trying desperately not to pluck at the others feathers, for the sake of not getting scolded.

"No." Sherlock exclaimed louder than her needed to when his mother entered the living room from behind him.

"I haven't said anything yet."

"You were thinking. More precisely you were thinking of suggesting a game of charades. So no." Mrs Holmes simply tutted and placed the plate of mince pies down on the coffee table before walking back out to check out the eggnog warming on the stove.

"Worried your intellect cannot span so far as to win a game?" Mycroft asked from his seat only a foot away, in the arm chair he insisted on occupying each time they visited.

"Haven't you got a country to run?"

"No...but only just barely." The smirk on Mycroft's face was wide but it soon melted into one of inconvenience. "My receptionist didn't show up at the beginning of the week. It caused a great pain in regards to the security of London Bridge."

"Why? Because you had to get your own lunch?" Sherlock's eyes had narrowed into slits but Mycroft turned away leaving them both in peace again. Until his phone buzzed.

Both sets of eyes in the room turned to look at the device which had dinged so loudly in the silence but while Sherlocks brow furrowed, Mycroft's unwrinkled and his eye brows rose in curiosity.

 **From: Number Blocked.**

 **Merry Christmas, Mr Holmes.**

 **K.I.M xx**

"From a friend?" Mycroft enquired curiously, trying to peep at the screen of the phone.

"Friend?" Sherlock questioned, mind partially absent as he read and reread the text. K.I.M. An acronym, usually used by an organisation. But no, this was more personal than this. This was a name. Kim. No..too easy. KIM.

"Can Scotland Yard not take care of their own work for one day?" The eldest rolled his eyes but it became quite clear, quite soon that it wasn't the detective inspector that was always begging for his brothers help. "An enemy then?"

"No one." There was only one logical reply to make of course, a one which took less than 30 seconds to type out but then he paused. There was no real threat. The woman was obviously sent by a woman, under the age of 40 considering the use of kisses and the number they had used. She knew him, obviously and they had met...it was far too casual for them to have not met.

Never the less he kept his reply as it was. It was simple enough to entertain any sort of mind which was on the receiving end. Afterwards, he placed the phone down and placed his hands together, bringing them to his mouth.

 **To: Number Blocked.**

 **I don't believe we have met.**

 **SH.**

The phone balanced on the arm of the chair and for the next few minutes that passed, he never took his eyes off it. All the while, Mycroft studied the phone in curiosity. Everything depended on their response and the time it took for them to do it. A world of difference lay between a minute or two and luckily, he didn't have to wait anymore than ten.

Interesting.

* * *

She couldn't believe it when the phone dinged at the end of the bed, barely five minutes after she had sent the first. There was always the chance it was something else. That it was really just Jim having a big joke to try and cheer her up, he was on the other side of the bedroom door giggling in reality... but after a minute or so nothing came. Jim didn't appear, the phone just reminded her of the text two minutes later.

She was slow in reaching for the phone, but once it was in her hand she didn't hesitate any longer and opened it.

 **From: Sherlock Holmes**

 **I don't believe we have met.**

 **SH.**

He had took the bait...not she just had to reel him in. She had to 'make him need her' as Jim had so lovingly put it. But how? She hadn't even made Jim need her, if anything it was the other way around.

What could she say? That they have met? That they hadn't? That... with a frustrated sigh, Katherine dropped the phone onto the thick duvet and blew the few stay bits of hair out of her face. She could do this, she'd emailed terrorist earlier in the week, she could handle Sherlock Holmes.

 **To: Sherlock Holmes**

 **You're one of my Christmas Presents.**

 **K.I.M xx**

She was positively smug as she pressed send and went back to her cooling brownies, reaching for the half empty tub of ice cream on the side. It was setting up to be an interesting evening. She had gave him something which would no doubt send his alarm bells ringing, but also his intrigue.

She tuned back into the film as the reply took longer this time, but before long, the tiny bing echoed off the stone walls of the castle and the phone screen lit up.

 **From: Sherlock Holmes**

 **I wasn't aware I was someones to gift.**

 **SH.**

She hadn't met him or talked to him enough to be able to tell his mood. Whether he was being sarcastic or pissed or even amused. She could read it in his voice or picture his face as he sent it. All she could do was read his chosen words and try to work out something which would send his advanced brain waves burning.

 **To: Sherlock Holmes**

 **I think there's a lot of things you're not aware of.**

 **K.I.M xx**

It wasn't as good as her last, but it would do for now. And it would do until the morning.

Katherine didn't know what she was more surprised at; her growing confidence with each reply or how much she was actually enjoying it. The more he replied, the more she wanted to keep going. She was going to have fun with this. Winding him up may be the only way to make her happy, he did deserve it after all...snob.

But she didn't want to get to carried away and give him too much too soon. So Katherine decided enough was enough and turned the phone off to stop herself from being absorbed by it.

She spent the next few hours watching tv and finishing off the ice cream. It was the early hours of Boxing Day when she finally fell asleep and even later when she half awoke to see Jim sitting up in his side of the bed with her gifted phone turned on, in his hands. For a second she was nervous, then she noticed his wide smile.

Katherine closed her eyes before he could see she was awake and she had never been so grateful to herself. Because after he'd turned the phone back off and laid down, Jim shuffled over enough to wrap his arms around her and laid a kiss on her forehead.

"Good job. I love you, you minx."

She didn't say anything back, she didn't even risk smiling. She just let him hold her and listened as he fell asleep none the wiser.

* * *

Christmas was over, New Years was over. The whole...festive season was over. In the Moriarty household that revelation had little effect apart from the staff being slightly less cheery and Katherine had fewer distractions to entertain her.

Jim had left her alone for the first time since they'd arrived. Urgent business, had been his excuse. So she was sat with unknown eyes watching her every moments, making sure no one got to her and she didn't do anything stupid.

So for Katherine, severe boredom had only led to one thing.

 **To: Sherlock Holmes**

 **Good Morning :)**

 **K.I.M xx**

It had been 10 days since she'd sent the first text and this was the first she had sent since. Katherine didn't want to portray her voice to be desperate. She didn't want him to grow sick of her too quickly or learn to expect a delivery every day. She was going to be as seemingly spontaneous as possible. That way, he would hopefully keep playing with her and he would not be able to work out in patterns in her texts.

That was the one thing Moriarty had warned her of earlier in the week; to watch what she was saying and make sure not to make any mistakes. He didn't expect her too, after two years she had yet to make any vital errors...in her work. Getting shot was quite the big boo boo. But she had to check, double check and check again. Read through every text in every possible way he could, if it was too informative, don't send it.

 **From: Sherlock Holmes**

 **Should I expect to hear from you regularly?**

 **SH.**

They were still strangers. He couldn't have known. And even if he did remember their brief meeting, she wasn't listed under her real name.

 **To: Sherlock Holmes**

 **Most certainly.**

 **K.I.M xx**

Katherine barely had a chance to put the mobile down on the dining table she sat at before she heard the front door open. Heavy footsteps could be heard searching through each room before a voice called out.

"Katherine? Katherine?" She recognised the voice, but she wasn't aware that they were meant to be here today. They were still out on the hunt, he was leading the kill team. She hadn't even seen him for almost two weeks.

"Yes?" She leant back in her chair just in time to see him walk through the door. "Sebastian?" A smile came to her face, it was a rare sighting to see him these days and it was genuinely a receiving feeling to know he hadn't sustained any injuries doing his work. At least it didn't look like it, then again he was wearing his heavy combat gear, on gun under each arm and another tucked into the back of his trousers.

He returned the smile easily, then clapped his hands. "Time to go." Sebastian gestured towards the front door with a nod of his head and just like that, all good feelings were gone and replaced with panic.

"What? What's wrong?" With wide eyes, she glanced from her have finished brunch to the sniper who had grew a smirk.

"Nothing. New house." He didn't wait for her reply and turned to the line of staff which had formed upon his arrival. "Make sure all of Mrs Moriarty's things are packed in the next half hour. And have someone try to tame those damn dogs and have them loaded in the van." It had been his job the last five times they had moved and he was not doing it again. His arms could only bare so much scratching.

"Sebastian?"

"I've been sworn to secrecy. The boss will be home tonight, he'll tell you." It must have been good news...it had to be. Sebastian's good mood meant it had to be. Unless he was just trying to mask it and keep her calm. But no, it was too genuine.

He watched her with hesitancy, Jim's word still haunted him and he knew he was being watched closer than normal...closer than Katherine quite possibly now he was alone with her. Never the less, he couldn't just stand there like a plank of wood so he took the seat next to her.

"How are you?"

"As well as can be expected apparently." Her dear friend, Doctor Phillips, had paid them a visit only two days ago. She was fully recovered in terms of the miscarriage, the gun wound...hmm.

"Consider yourself lucky, most men would be in the hospital for 2 weeks, never mind two days." He laughed and watched the movement of her shoulder as she poured him a cup of tea from the pot. She had no strength in it yet but after a couple of weeks she was able to turn and at least move her arm without too much discomfort.

"They said because of the glass and the gun it wasn't deep. No broken bones meant it was better." Katherine slowly started to recall the information she'd been told when she'd first been discharged from the hospital, back when she didn't care if it was amputated as long as she didn't have to stay there. "They say it could be 3 to 6 months before I'm back to normal."

"But no sling?" With one eyebrow raised, he was jesting and she knew it. Jim had voiced his frustration at her for being so stubborn.

"I refuse...it makes me look old and...medical." They both laughed, and afterwards a silence settled over them. She turned back to finish her food and Sebastian waited patiently, all the while studying her, trying to search for anything different. He knew men who had mentally broke after going through what she had went though, without the added loss of a child. He wanted to make sure she was stable...it was the one thing Jim never spoke of to him or anymore else.

"I'm sorry for..." Sebastian made a small look down to her stomach and she instantly knew what he was implying. Jim had told him then, he was one of the few he'd entrusted. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said-"

"It's alright, and thank you." Katherine smiled but the rise of her lips was barely visible. "Just...make sure you get them. Please."

"Already working on it." At that moment, her phone bleeped beside her hand and both pairs of eyes peered down at the screen. However, as Katherine smirked, Sebastian frowned and scoffed. So it had started?

 **From: Sherlock Holmes**

 **Then can I at least know your name?**

 **SH.**

"New fella?" He teased, watching Katherine closely as she picked up the device and unlocked the screen.

"Hmm jealous." She began typing but very quickly deleted all that she had typed, taking a break in between to wink at Sebastian in jest.

"Oh, insatiably." The more she typed and the more she back tracked and deleted it all with a frown, the morse curious Sebastian grew. She was putting a lot more effort into it than he had expected when first hearing about the plan a few months back. He thought she'd find it a chore, but the small smile she got when she thought of something better proved otherwise. "Got anything?"

"Nope. This is only the second time...I'm at a loss of what to say."

"Well you know Jim, play with him. Keep him on his toes, use that wit of yours." She was being used to get intel from the man himself, whether Jim had told her that he didn't know. She had most likely been told it was just a game, and it was. But it was the start the THE game, it was down to Katherine to get the big ball rolling.

"I don't have wit." Katherine tutted.

Any further conversation was interrupted when her head housekeeper knocked sharply on the door. She was panting and looked rather flushed.

"Excuse me, Mrs Moriarty. Mr Moran, the dogs have bit Mr Thompson. No one else will go near them." Oh for gods sake, some people weren't able to handle anything without being overseen by someone competent.

Katherine's shoulders sagged and she released a deep sigh, almost making to woman wince. Though not as violently as Sebastian already was. With a hand rubbing his stubbled chin, he looked at Katherine and chuckled nervously.

"Care to help?"

He was a grown man who'd seen war and fought off men twice his size, but faced with three little puppies and he was scared. Well...puppies, man eating Dobermans. Same thing.

She nodded and clicked send on the message which was still sat open on the phone.

 **To: Sherlock Holmes**

 **I've given you my name ;)**

 **K.I.M xx**

Then, she dropped it into the pocket of her cardigan and stood, ready to lead Sebastian up to where she knew the dogs would be, in her bedroom. They were very protective and very territorial, they had all been since she got them. It was sweet, they even knew when to step in between herself and Jim. Unlike her, he would never go for them knowing their physical bite was even stronger than her verbal one.

They jogged up the stairs, ignoring the spluttering imbecile who was getting his hand wrapped in the corridor. Get shot and you may get sympathy, get bit and go cry in the basement. Katherine followed the barking to her bedroom door and wasted no time in walking straight in.

"Hello my darlings." The three boisterous boys instantly stilled, silenced and stood to attention with their ears pointed up towards the ceiling. But one by one they started to pine as she sank to the ground and they trotted over, nudging her hand with their noses. "Oh what's the matter? Hmm? Did horrible Graham try and come ruin your fun?" They were very sensitive, you had to be gentle with them. Like children, you couldn't just go barging it, you had to sugar coat changes. Just as she was settling them, Sebastian took a first step into the room and the eldest, Lecter, barred his teeth and barked. "Hey! Hey...come here..." He silenced immediately under her hand and Katherine smiled, looking back over her shoulder at Seb. "See, they're just big puppies still."

"You have balls." He was stood, admittedly sheepish, in the door way to the bedroom, watching on curiously.

"Come on." Her endless cooing to the boys was cut short when one went rogue and jumped up at Sebastian. He was innocently curious, until he started to growl. "Hey! Freddie down!" Like a soldier following his sergeant, the dog jumped down and went back to her.

No wonder Jim listened to her. Sometimes Sebastian wondered if she was the only one who could tell Jim what to do and live to tell the tale. He'd never seen her try, but he'd noticed bruises on her arms and legs at odd times over the course of their marriage. Then again, he said she'd live, not that she'd be safe from him altogether.

"There you go." Katherine smiled, holding her arm on her injured side to her chest as the other handed him the three leads, each with a pooch strapped to the end. "Now, I must oversee my packing."

Katherine, fitted with a smug grin, left the room and as she did she heard one of her phones go off in her pocket. She would only glance at it, but she wouldn't respond. She was far too busy for such chit chat.

However, she was most surprised to see the message was not from the detective, but Jim, on her regular phone.

 **From: Number Blocked.**

 **Good news. See you soon.**

 **JM x**


	12. Chapter 12

The new house was...was...more magnificent than anything she had ever laid eyes on. It spat on the old ones, it downright beat the Italian Cottage and the townhouse in New York. It was...like something from Brad Pitts dreams. A certain Mr Moriarty had gave himself a generous Christmas bonus this year,

It had been dusk when they'd pulled up and she felt normal again. Normal car, bar the three surrounding jeeps, normal house, normal dress wear. Even if it was just a loose black and white striped silk smock dress, it was nicer than a hoody and sweat pants or pyjamas. The outside of the cream pebble dashed mansion was sit up perfectly for the evening, the driveway illuminated with spot lights leading to a small fountain. There was large open green spaces and it looked so beautiful even from the car. As much of a fantasy living in a castle was, it was also claustrophobic and this just felt so much more open, so much air of which to breath.

And Katherine actually felt safe. For the first time without the high walls and the shelter, she felt safe. She didn't step out of the car huddling close to Sebastian for cover or frantically looking around to see who was Heidi in the tress. Instead, she turned very much back into the woman she had been before all the drama, and strode from the car. The gravel didn't effect how her heels handled the ground and she kept her head held high as she entered the house ahead of any other member of the entourage.

Over the years, she'd learnt to hide her wonder. Although everything in the house was beautiful, in front of staff she acted as if it were but another silly old house. But it wasn't, if this was their new main home he had done very well, very well indeed.

As she walked down the hall to explore, heels clicking against the cream marble floor she could practically see her face in, Sebastian and co started carrying her belongings into the house.

"Where is he?" Katherine called out to no one in particular, finding her way into the kitchen where a number of bodies were already hard at work at the stove and polishing the China for dinner.

"Good evening ma'am." A couple of them greeted her with a low nod of their head but non dared stop what they were doing for a second. And before she had to repeat herself, the youngest girl in the room looked up and answered her.

"Mr Moriarty called an hour ago, he's expected at 7pm ma'am." She couldn't have been any older than twenty. Pretty, blonde hair, thin...she was new and she was going to have a pair of eyes watching her when Moriarty was at home. She also needed to learn how to cut a long story short.

"Good." Katherine nodded, but never took her eyes off the the girl. In fact she kept studying her until she started to sweat, twisting the dusting rag in her hands uncomfortably. "Get me a glass of wine."

"Of course Miss." Katherine quirked a brow but became amused after a few seconds as the girl began rushing around the large kitchen in search of everything she needed. As she took a seat of the kitchen bar, just a couple of feet from where vegetables were being prepared, she once again smirked with amusement when she looked up to see the girl being scolded by one of the more mature and experienced staff members.

"White please." She shouted over the rush of the kitchen, immediately silencing them all. She didn't really care honestly, but she was in the mood to tease and saw an open opportunity as the girl reached for the bottle of red in the wine rack. In response the blonde nodded and then scurried to the fridge.

But watching her was only amusing for so long and she had just remembered a certain little someone had begged for her attention on the drive over.

 **From: Sherlock Holmes**

 **Your first name?**

 **SH**

Was she going to tell him? Over course not, but she would give him a little hint.

 **To: Sherlock Holmes**

 **I'll give you a hint. It's begins with K.**

 **K.I.M xx**

There would be no way she would even give him her real name, not unless Jim told her to. Even if by chance he guessed. It would never be confirmed.

She replaced the phone back into her pocket just as the wine was set down in front of her. The girl hovered but then scuttled back to her corner after catching one of Katherine's glares.

There wasn't a real reason for her irritating mood, she should be delighted by the new house. But she was uneasy about the move and feeling verbals always made her a little tetchy.

Her phone screen lit up beside her glass and she made an impressed face. The reply was quicker than all the others.

 **From: Sherlock Holmes**

 **I don't have time for games.**

 **SH**

She was going to have him scrambling to make time when she was done with him. And he would learn to love it.

"Ma'm. Mr Moriarty has arrived." The sudden announcement caught her off guard. It took a while for her brain to catch up with her, so much so she actually stuttered before she allowed a smile to cross her mouth. Moving from Sherlock to Moriarty proved to be difficult. With one she was encouraged to tease, test and taunt. With the other, it was classed as bad behaviour.

"Oh goodie. Is he in a pleasant mood?" The woman didn't answer, of course she didn't answer, she knew her place.

Katherine picked her up wine and her phone and breezily made her way to the front of the house where she knew he'd be waiting for her. He wouldn't have summoned her otherwise.

Just as she suspected, when she approached the main reception area by the front door she was greeted with the sight of men still unpacking their bags from the many cars and the man himself, stripping from his coat. She smiled at him, but waited silently as Jim took slow steps towards her.

"Evening sweetness." He kissed her unexpectedly, cupping her face with his hand as the other took hold of her waist. She knew it was good news. "My office, now." Jim spoke quickly after pulling away and slapping her rear. "I have some very important news."

"I don't know where it is." She called out to him with an eager smile causing him to shout over his shoulder.

"Then keep up!"

She trotted as gracefully as possible until she was right behind Jim, weaving through the sparkling hallways until he pushed open the very last door you could find, buried deep in the back of the house. She closed and locked the door behind them then watched Jim pour out two glasses of scotch on the rocks.

When Jim came back to her, holding one out for her to take, Katherine gestured to the wine in her hand but it ended up simply being removed from her grip and replaced with the scotch.

"May I enquirer to what deserves such celebration?" She chuckled, talking a seat around the small table in the centre of the room. Jim followed and took the seat to her left, sipping the amber liquid.

"We got them."

For a brief moment she wasn't exactly sure what he meant. 'Them' was a simple collective term which could have meant anything but then her brain narrowed it all down to one thing, the one thing which it must have been judging by the blood lust clouding Jim's eyes. Had it have been genetically possible to turn red, they would have glowed in the dim light of the office. No wonder he had been in such a good mood. No wonder Sebastian had even been positively elated. No wonder she was sat in a normal house, surrounded by lovely normal things.

"What?" It was barely audible, her shocked whisper. The ornate glass almost slipped through her fingers, threatening to smash on the ground, but she came to her senses in the nick of time and raised it to take a much needed sip. God she hated scotch. Katherine's face contorted as the liquid burned her throat, and she looked past Jim to try and take it in.

"The clients who sent the sniper, we got them. Well, we've been picking them off for weeks but we got the big guy and the name of the shooter. Both were taken care of this afternoon." His words didn't seem real. She would have believed that he was making it all up to make her feel better, over it actually being true. It couldn't be over, it couldn't it. It should've have made her feel a lot better.

"So...they're gone? Completely?" While trying to show her gratitude for him finding the culprits, she could ignore the lack of justice she felt. She was happy, don't get her wrong, but there was no penultimate reward. She may not have wished to see their blood be spilled in front of her eyes or to hear their screams but it came to her realisation that she had been expecting something. "What about people he may have been working with?" Katherine masked her unusual disappointment as she looked back at Jim.

"We were careful on this. We didn't rush anything, we watched more than we acted. They're all gone and anyone who may have known, who may have been scheming." Jim paused as his eyes glazed over with the darkness he reserved for his clients. "They're getting a nice big warning in tomorrows post about what will happen if they even think of trying something like that." She didn't want to know what it was they were receiving, but she got the impression it wasn't a threat of the verbal kind.

"So..."

"So..." He imitated her and stood so he could move to crouch by her side. "We are safe. More importantly you are safe. No one can get to you." His hand caressed her cheek and then travelled down her arm to hold her hand. "What's wrong?" She wasn't showing the delight he had expected her too. He had travelled home picturing her face being a one of pure joy, with that sadistic revengeful grin making him appreciate every bit of her twisted heart. But what he got was hesitation. She looked...lost.

"Nothing." Katherine shook her head but he wasn't stupid. Jim scoffed and dropped her hand from his grip.

"You know, I spent the best part of ten million pounds tracking them, pulling my men off multiple other jobs to watch them, kill them, dispose of them." He started to rant and the fact he never moved an inch from her made her heart start crawling into her throat. "I spend fifteen million on a new house with no bad memories, somewhere you'll feel safe and all I get is your pitiful face."

"It's not that I'm not grateful. I-"

"Then what is it? What else could you possibly want?" Katherine fell silent and didn't fight him after she was interrupted. But after he was done, she looked up at him from under her lashes and tried desperately not to say what came to her mind and what had been on her mind this whole time.

But he seen it. Of course he seem it. It was the same bloody look on her face as when he'd spoken to her upon first waking up in that hospital. He thought she was over it, she'd been so normal with him. He thought she had put it behind her, just like he had.

"Don't." His voice held so much darkness, it scared her. So she tried to drop it, she tried to let it go and tell him it was fine and to forget it. But the words wouldn't come and she could only think about how all his killing, all his vengeance and money and effort, had not made the baby reappear in her belly. "Don't." Her head fell down so her eyes met the ground instead of him, and finally Jim got up making a bee line for the door. "Get out."

Her head snapped up and tracked his movements up to him opening his office door. "Jim." But calling out for him didn't change anything.

"Get out!" His cheeks were hollowed and his eyes black.

"No." She stayed sat. She wasn't going to let him just throw her out along with his disregard to it all. They had never actually talked about it. They just comforted one another. For Jim to lay with her and be as vulnerable as he had been, it was something she valued but also something she never wished to see again. And it was also something that had very little closure. "No." She wanted to know how he felt, she wanted to talk about it because, inside that was what was was holding her back from moving on.

She'd just been expected to straighten up and fly right. To stand by his side like a loving wife. Well tough, because no matter how much money you threw at your problems, no matter how many people you killed, somethings didn't just disappear.

"What is it? You want a baby?" Jim slammed the door shut and started coming back towards her, footsteps silent against the wood. "You want to run around with a kid on your arm? Calling you mummy and me daddy?"

"Stop it."

"News flash Katherine. That will never happen." He stood a few yards off from her and stuffed his hands in his pockets. He looked so smug, so bloody smug she wanted to slap it off his face. He had no right, he did not have the power over her to do this. "This was a tragedy and a loss that shouldn't have happened. The people who caused it burned. Believe me sweetheart. They. Burned." Jim's jaw was slack as it always was when he was angry. "But a child has no place in this world. There's no room for midnight bottles and nursery rhymes." With a casual shrug of his shoulders, he closed the gap between them and started playing with her hair.

It made her feel two inches tall.

"What if I hadn't have lost it?" Her voice was hoarse and cracking too much for him to take seriously. She sounded weak and he hated weak. His Katherine wasn't weak.

"But you did darling. You did-"

She grew sick and threw her hands down by her sides in frustration. "But if I hadn't? What would you have done?"

"Taken you out the field and let you get on with that boring side of life." Jim hadn't even paused, there hadn't been one second where he had actually thought about it. But she knew it was the truth, he wouldn't have slowed and raised his child, he wouldn't have been sat in the waiting room and went furniture shopping. He would have went to work, sent flowers when it was born and bought it consolation presents every time he went away to try and make up for his absence. "That what you wanted to hear?" In a way yeah, because it crushed the idealistic world she'd build in her mind. It made her want it all just a little bit less, knowing The Jim in her head didn't meet who he actually was.

But her fighting spirt was still very much alight and once she was going, it was hard to stop.

"The boring side of life. Why did you even marry me? A child is just the step beyond that."

"Stop being melodramatic, you know it riles me." Jim drawled, rolling his eyes and turning his back to her.

"No Jim, you know I think this is the most 'normal' argument we've ever had." She was getting feisty. Good. He could work with her more when she was feisty. It was so much more fun than when she was feeling sorry for herself. "I don't want it, at least I know I should want it and I know if I became pregnant again I'd hate it. But I had it and I want it back."

Moriarty suddenly turned back to her and grounded his teeth together before forcing himself to meet her eyes. "Get up." This time she did as he said and stood, coming nose to nose with him. "I can give you the world." Jim's hands slowly circled her waist, pulling Katherine even closer. His lips started to graze her jaw and as hard as she tried to fight it, she felt herself melting into his arms. "Don't hate me because of the one thing I can't fix."

Katherine opened her eyes and pulled back, using her hand to move his head and look into his eyes. He was genuine. Of course it could all be an act to shut her up but in that moment she just didn't care anymore. Her fight was dwindling, she got her answers and she just wanted him to be as close to her as possible. Physical and emotionally.

"I'm sorry." With a small jolt of nervous laughter, she looked past him to the door. "I just...I don't know...maybe I am just stupid." Katherine laughed again, more confidently this time, though she was slowly hushed when Jim placed a hand on the back of her head and pulled her into his chest.

His chin rested on the top of her head and his finger rubbed circles below her ribs, near tickling her.

"Yeah you are." He even managed a smile as she huffed a chuckle and slapped his stomach. But before he could let this all be swept under the rug, he lowered his lips to her ear and emitted a growl. "Try not to be boring again in my presence."

No more chances. No more hearts to hearts. She had to be a big girl now. No excuses.

"Jim?" Her voice was back to being small but it held something, something he had categorically logged as very dangerous over the years.

"Yes darling?"

"It's been two weeks, and I've missed you..." Like clockwork, her hand started playing with the neck of his tie and the other tugged on his belt buckle. She was a minx. Slightly shifty in her moods lately but she was just like him and he loved it. They were so changeable and against one another it was disastrous, but together, they could rule. They did rule.

"Get upstairs."


	13. Chapter 13

All too soon, Katherine remembered every single reason as to why the sadistic side of her had thanked her shooter. 99% of which related to allowing her to escape from this underground prison. Within an hour, she'd developed a headache mostly due to the ill lighting and backache from being constantly sat with such artificial posture as she typed. The work for her to do was minimal, surprisingly so, but she had yet to earn the full trust of her boss it seamed and the five week absence had not helped. Overall the day was dragging on and she couldn't wait to go home.

"He's not answering his phone." The sudden presence entering the room caused her to jump, dropping her mobile phone into her desk draw and slamming it.

"Sorry, do you have an appointment?" She already knew without looking up, of course she already knew. There were only two people on earth who could enter a room and start a conversation with a stranger like that and one of them was in the office next door. Never the less, she couldn't act as if she paid attention, so she went along with the script she used for everyone.

"Oh, its the slow one. Back from holiday?" It was at that point she did move her eyes from the computer screen, looking up at the six foot, gaunt frame of Sherlock Holmes. Surely he didn't just say what she thought he had? Before she had time to register and confront him however, the good detective continued. "No. Of course it wasn't a holiday, you're even paler than when you left. Meaning you spent the majority of your time inside and..."

He suddenly trailed off and broke their eye contact. She should have been relieved but it was quite the contrary, she wanted to know what he had deduced, what exactly had Sherlock Holmes found to make him so abruptly, yet subtly, awkward?

"And..." Katherine pushed him on, eyes wide and questioning. But all the man did was look at her with fake grief, a look all too familiar because every morning for the first week of her recovery she had seen it on Jim's face too.

"I'm...sorry." At least Jim's words were more believable, Sherlock merely sounded like a child trying to get out of a sticky situation. He didn't really know...he couldn't have. What was it from? The way she was sat? The way she talked? What on earth was she doing which made it so bloody easy to see? Did she have the word 'miscarriage' tattooed across her forehead in ink everyone but she could see?

There she was, thinking she was strong and that she was getting over it. But obviously there was a part of her being which just made it oh so obvious she was affected by it.

An awkward silence settled over the pair, both trying to figure out what dialogue could come next to detract the tension from one another. In the end, it was Katherine who broke face first, shrugging her shoulders and clearing her throat.

"Your brother is currently in a meeting Mr Holmes. I'll let him know you stopped by. If it is urgent, you are more than welcome to wait upstairs." Katherine stamped a pile of papers into line on her desk and then rose from her seat to walk past Sherlock and to a small filing cabinet on Sandra's side of the office. She had to move just so she didn't feel trapped by him, backed into her little corner.

She had been expecting him to leave cause of her explanation, instead he turned and allowed his eyes to follow her across the room.

"What's your name?" His voice was slower than any other time she had heard it. It matched the sort of voice she'd tried to create in her head when he sent some of his texts, those one word sentences or calm questions. It made her smile, Which also made her grateful her back was turned.

"Me? Oh you know, normally I just go by 'The Slow One'." Her heated tongue had got the better of her, regrettably, but she fought it and turned back to Sherlock with a small smile. He almost seemed shocked at her first reply. Good, she wanted to be able to shock him. "Rebecca Austin." Katherine's smile grew and she bumped the draw shut with her hip before returning to her seat.

Dress size 6. 30 years old. Married. Shoulder injury.

What he failed to pick up was her dishonesty. Something she had over most others, an innocent little ability to fool almost anyone. Even she wasn't aware of it, but after years of meetings and identity changes it became a gift. After all she had separated from her born identity and stepped into Katherine almost seamlessly without ever looking back. Lying was was like breathing to her now, the only person who could detect it was, of course, Jim.

Sherlock openly displayed a frown as the woman took a seat in front of him. He watched her down the bridge of his nose as she made an unconvincing effort to make herself look busy. She shuffled papers and clicked open a few computer windows, shutting others but honestly she was faking it all. Most likely because she never really did any work unless someone of importance was watching.

In reality, Katherine just didn't want to look at him and risk showing him the sadness he had caused to surface. Not because she was afraid of him feeling guilty, but because she didn't want to seem at all weak.

"I'm sorry, is there something I can help you with?" She asked when he continued to hover.

"Who is my brother with?" For a moment Katherine thought he was actually beginning to stall his exit. Either that or he was genuinely interested in his brother, though after talking to Sandra on the rare occasion, she could confidently deny that as even being an option.

"Lady Smallwood. An associate." Sherlock merely hummed a response and hovered around the office. He was no longer watching her but he didn't seem to be looking at anything. Just...wandering. "Mr Holmes...I assure you I'll make your brother aware of your visit." He needed to leave before she grew too tired of his presence to keep up the act.

"Why do you choose to work for my brother?" Sherlock suddenly turned his full attention back to her with a furrowed brow and took long, slow steps towards her desk. "You're wearing a designer dress worth more than what most earn in a month, that sapphire on your ring finger indicates your husband makes more than a good living so why...why work for my brother when you could get buy fine without any job at all?"

"I like getting out the house." Katherine smiled at him plainly, not at all smugly although she was tempted. God was she tempted. "I'm not a one for sitting around all day spending my husbands money."

She intrigued him. Not in a interesting way but something was off about her. Something he couldn't see when he looked at her. She wasn't lying, but she wasn't...her behaviour didn't follow the same pattern as the ordinary being which suffocated him every day.

"Tell my brother I'll call." He slowly turned around, putting his back on her. She was boring. Nothing more than a receptionist, just a woman trying to find a bit more independence.

Once he had left the office, Katherine gave great sigh of relief and finally allowed her shoulders to sag, her spine arching into a slouch. He had been much more curious in terms of her being this time around, he'd actually looked at her, actually spoke to her. She wondered why, but from what she'd learnt through Jim it could be for any number of reasons, one being just because he just couldn't help himself.

For the remaining hour of Mycroft's meeting, Katherine spent her time aimlessly browsing the internet and staring into space. The whole office was silent due to the sound proofing which blocked out all of Mycroft's doings and no other visitors had dare wander in. She hadn't even had a call or a text. No prying from Sherlock, no check ins from Jim...nothing. She was just left to her own devices, in fact she was almost happy for the interruption when Mycroft's office door opened. At least it gave her a purpose and something to do.

"I'll expect an update within the week Mycroft." The ageing, white haired woman spoke sternly through a thin mouth. She was dainty, but professional, Katherine was reminded of a school headmistress when she laid eyes on Lady Smallwood.

Standing, Katherine moved to retrieve the Ladys coat from the hook and help it open for her to slip on as their conversation continued.

"Of course. Miss Austin please assure a helicopter is arranged for the day after tomorrow."

She nodded once, brushing down the shoulders of Lady Smallwoods coat. "Of course, where will I say the destination is?" He seemed to stiffen then, his arm straightened on the cane he always seemed to have and his chin pointed up.

"Sherrinford." She knew not to ask questions, but inside her curiosity had perked. She'd never heard of such a place but by the look on both their faces it was serious. Most likely some government thing, a place they all met like those Aluminati documentaries. He was probably going to dance naked around an Aztec sculpture somewhere.

"Of course." Instead of prying, and imaging the awful image she'd just presented to herself, Katherine nodded and walked back to her desk once Lady Smallwood had shrugged on her coat. They shared a few more hushed words out of her earshot but it wasn't long before the woman walked past her desk, throwing one final greeting over her shoulder.

"Good day, Mycroft."

"Mr Holmes, your brother stopped by about an hour ago. He said he'd call."

"Did he say what for?"

"No."

"Very well. Oh and Rebecca..." He never used her first name, not unless her truly wanted to intimidate her or make her feel the lowest of the low. "If you even think of that word outside of this room, your finger tips will be planted on a major crime seen which will see you be incarcerated for all of your remaining days, am I clear?"

"Understood, sir." Mycroft then turned with a smirk and retreated back into his dungeon. "Jackass." The joke was on him, they didn't even have her real fingerprints, she'd love for him to try planting them just to see how it was all unfurl. How embarrassing it would be for him, for his lousy government.

God she couldn't wait to get home, but she couldn't wait to tell Jim Mycroft's little secret more. Had he have left it she would have shrugged it off, hell she would have down right forgot the word after telling it to the transportation team. But he just had to threaten her, he just had to make her curious.

It took two seconds to type out the message on her phone, another to send it.

 **(New) To: Unknown**

 **Sherrinford.**

 **K.**

She didn't need to put anymore than that, they each knew how the others brain worked by now and Katherine knew as soon as he received the message he would be delving into his research using the darkest most hidden parts of the internet.

Her apprehension for a reply made the next hour pass quick. For a little while she thought he must have just been busy but then her phone dinged and she knew then that he'd long ago received her message, he'd just spent the best part of 60 minutes finding out what it meant exactly.

 **From: Number Blocked**

 **Oooh...good girl Kitty Kat!**

 **JM xx**

It must have been good, or at least some form of positive intel. There would be no way he'd call her that if it wasn't. But she wouldn't find out until tonight, it was far to delicate of a thing to simply text. However, she did have another little piece of info up her sleeve which she'd almost forgot about. She'd save that for in person too however, she wanted to see the look on Jim's face when he was informed of just how much Sherlock could read her.

* * *

"Take the dogs out and make sure Jim's car is seen to as it has a long journey in the morning. See to the floors in here, they're disgusting and I want someone to look at the terrace in the guest bedroom immediately. I don't know what your staff do all day but it seems to be everything but what they're supposed to."

"Is Charlotte present?" That young little blonde. Katherine needed someone to make her feel superior after her first day back acting as Mycroft's slave and she would do perfectly. Over the past couple of months she had wanted nothing more than to send her packing but she didn't have a good enough reason apart from her face irritating her, and she didn't want Jim to think she was pathetic. So instead, she just made the girls life a misery when she felt like it...it was perfectly reasonable.

"In the Kitchen Ma'am." A passing maid answered promptly.

"Charlotte! I want dinner served at 6pm, sharp. I have too much to do for you to slack." She didn't care that she sounded like a bitch, no one cared. She also didn't care if it wasn't the girls job, she had better make it her job or she'd still suffer the consequences. Walking away from the kitchen, unwilling to wait for the girls response, Katherine pulled the pin from her hair allowing her locks to fall down and frame her face. "Sebastian!" She needed the 'head of staff' to put his foot down, and to also sort out the ongoing argument of who was acting dog handler. "Sebastian!"

Behind the door of Jim's office, the sniper cringed upon hearing the shrill scream of his name. It had been so calm. He'd enjoyed a scotch with the boss and sat agreeing to plans for the following day, all while the house was quiet with everyone going about their business. Then footsteps had quickened and the maid began whispering orders out in the corridor signalling she was almost home. The lady of the house. Her effect on the atmosphere never failed to shock him, though it always managed to make Jim smirk beyond his knowledge.

As the second call sounded, Jim looked up from his schedule with raised eyebrows but a tensed jaw. Some times he loved it, other times it boiled his blood. Like all husbands, no matter what background, sometimes he wished she would stay at work just a little while longer.

"She sounds in an oh so pleasant mood this evening..." He spoke and then focused on Sebastian. "Go see what she wants." Without a moments hesitation, Seb ran a hand over his face but stood and moved towards the office door.

"Will I let her know you're home?" He asked over his shoulder, but already knew the answer.

"Not until she's tolerable." Moriarty shuffled papers to return to his work, but just as Seb was about to close the door he hesitated and called out. "Actually...send her in. I could use her while she's heated." Katherine was much more motivated when she was in that sort of mood...bossy. And once he calmed her down she was always so mouldable.

He didn't have to wait long for her presence either, after hearing the muffled sounds of Sebastian conversing with her it was only a matter of minutes before she barged into his office. She stood, straight faced, looking less than pleased, in that plain awful dress suit he'd have burned before she could wear it again.

"Darling...you seem..." Jims eyes raked over her figure when she failed to speak. "...flustered."

"The result of being Mycroft Holmes's servant." Katherine began her journey over to his desk. She was practically sauntering up until she sat with an ungraceful thud on the corner of his desk. "I've never been so bored."

Jim looked up at her with amusement, a smug grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. "That doesn't mean you have to order your own staff around like the devils mistress." He had heard her. It had been hard not to hear her.

"Oh, but I am the devils mistress." She surprised him by leaning back until she was fully laid out in front of him, her head resting just by the keyboard of his computer so she could look up at him. After kicking of her shoes, Katherine brought her feet up to rest at the end of the desk and her hand began fiddling with his shirt buttons. That smirk would be the death of her one day, it was too much of a distraction for him. "Sebastian said you had a use for me?"

As her skirt rode up, transfixing his attention on her bronzed legs, Jim grew impatient and pulled her body roughly until she straddled his lap on the chair. Katherine giggled, feeling his finger tips digging into her hips but gasped when he spanked her.

"Behave." It was a growl which radiated through her, rattling her spine all the way down to her core. But all he received from her was a sinister smirk and teasing as she hovered her mouth just out of his reach, her head turning around his like a predator snake. "Katherine..."

"I'm bored..." She gave a final pout and then pecked him on the lips, humming in amusement.

Once a second growl pushed her back from him by an inch or two, Moriarty perked a brow and looked at her seriously. "If you would be a good girl, I'd let you in on what I found." She accepted his offer and climbed off his knee, but stayed close by perching on the end of his desk. "Sherrinford. It's a prison." Moriarty gestured to the computer where very few notes were open in the database.

Katherine sparsely read over the three or four bullet points and frowned. "A prison? Why would Mycroft be visiting a prison."

"We don't know. No one can get past the basics. This is one project MI6 didn't slack on, there's no holes in the security, and if there was I doubt there would be any real intel. It'll all be on hard copy, under lock and key." She could tell he wasn't happy about such discoveries. If there was one thing Jim hated more than anything it was things getting in his way. He was above the law and nothing should have been able to stop him, but he'd reach a wall and there was no way under or over it. So he'd just have to go through it. The question was, how would they? And why were they having to go to such trouble?

"But why?...it's just a prison..."

"Maximum security...kept hidden from all but the highest of security assess. It might be nothing but it's worth us knowing about in any situation." Moriarty leant back in his seat for a second, running his hand over his mouth in thought. But then he stopped, his hand dropped to his side and his eyes turned up towards her. "Good job sweetheart, you must be doing something right for him to say it to you."

Katherine chuckled in reply, thinking back to Mycroft's threat. "I highly doubt it. Straight after he threatened me with indefinite incarceration if I so much as 'thought of the word outside his office'...he's just too important to book his own flights." Not that she could talk, ordering a young girl around to serve her dinner at a particular time.

Jim smiled and pulled her back down to join him on his knee, . She had pleased him today, and it showed. "Incarcerated? You? I'd like to see him try..." He pushed her hair behind her ear and caressed her hip with his other hand.

Katherine hesitated before she went to say what she had been holding back all day. First she'd not texted him and now she was having trouble getting the words out. She didn't want to risk ruining the atmosphere and disrupting his attention. She didn't want to risk changing his she had too, for if she didn't say and he found out the repercussions would be much worse.

"I met his brother again today too." She spoke quietly and bit her lips when the hand on her hip came to a sharp stop. It started again however, a moment later.

"Oh?"

At first she simply nodded, before he explanation followed. She wasn't sure whether she should tell him of the detectives deductions. But it was for the best, after all the years she'd spent by Jim's side she knew it was best to be honest no matter what. "He was...overly observing as usual. He somehow knew about my 'loss'. It took him one look at me to see it."

"I told you, he's different." Jim was attempting to comfort her, she could tell at his hand moved to the small of her back to draw small circles but it was too keep her talking.

"But he seemed more interested. He asked why I worked there, he guessed I had a wealthy husband and actually asked me about me." Katherine's eyes had started to glaze over as she spoke and it was a look he knew too well. She was starting to think too much, she was beginning to worry. But he couldn't have her scared, when she was scared she made mistakes.

"You can't blame a man for wanting to talk to you, why do you think I made you mine?" Jim tried to pull her back to him with a smirk and a tug on her long hair. "You're such an excellent distraction to them..."

All too suddenly Katherine came back to life with a grin and looked Jim dead in the eyes. "Flattery doesn't work when it comes from you...what do you want?"

Well now that she came to mention it, there was one small thing on his agenda she had to be made aware of. "Nothing..."

"Mr Moriarty." She drawled, her hand wrapping around the back of his neck.

"I have a small job for you, a meeting with a client tomorrow evening. I need your...face." She hadn't been seen by his side in too long, she hadn't been seen by any clients of a considerable size for weeks and he needed them to know she was still there, breathing and fighting. Rumours had spread across his network, the 'downfall of Moriartys wife'. He needed her face at his side, untouched and worthy of worship.

"My face?"

"Italian man, likes his women. He's speaking with me about a money transfer, I would appreciate your company." It was only a little white lie. It was a money transfer but it had potential to be the largest money transfer in the history of Moriartys business. He had captured the attention of a top mob boss and, if secured, it could change his contacts and improve his network considerably for the foreseeable future.

"Are you planning on whoring me out?" Katherine raised her eyebrows and tilted her head questioningly. There was teasing behind her words but there was also venom, she would put anything past him when it came to business.

"I could use you, it's not as if I'd let him touch you." As his face settled into a stern expression, his eyes ran over her but it wasn't meant to be seductive. No, no, no...it was his possessive side. That part of him that claimed her and needed her, the part of him which recognised her as his and his alone. His pet. "You know my rules. You're mine." The corners of his lips turned downwards but it only made her smile wider.

She lent her arms on his shoulders, wrapping them around his neck and bringing her face close to his. Their noses grazed one another, Jim licked his lips resembling a lizard and she looked down her nose at him.

"Till death do us part." Her smirk was infectious and it soon spread to Moriarty, against his will. "No matter how much I irritate you." Even Jim had to admit in that moment, when he'd first saw her he underestimated her.

"Surprisingly, even when you irritate me, you impress me." There was a moment where neither of them spoke ,they just looked at each other, each with the same smug, evil grin. But then, without a sound, Katherine got up from his knee and left him. It left him speechless but entertained, watching her wiggle her way across his office.

"Dinners at 6 darling, try not to be late."


	14. Chapter 14

They had been left in a room for almost half an hour, surrounded by strange men in familiar black combat attire. So familiar in fact that she could hardly pick their own men out from Jim's clients. Sebastian was stationed on the roof of a neighbouring building, with a clear view into the room through the eye of his rifle. The men he closely trusted, the ones around them, stood in each corner of the room with guns disarmed but at the ready. Their clients men however seemed more like they had been told they were the enemy. Eyes were fixed on Jim and each of his moments, on occasion they would study her but with much less intensity. They didn't trust her husband, but then again who could blame them.

Katherine's hair was voluminously blow dried, her makeup impeccable. She wore a Couture Collection Vivienne Westwood suit which consisted of high waster cropped black patterned trousers, a droppers fitted blazer of the same material and a formal black cropped shirt with was stiff and hugged her skin. It was couture at its finest, stylish and professional with just the right level of sex appeal to allow Jim to show her off. If she raised her arm in just the right way, the soft flesh of her toned stomach would just be visible.

She made him look better in that very moment, she increased not only his impeccable fashion taste but his business, the way she sauntered around the room not paying any attention to the guns trained on her or the armoured men eating her figure up. Moriarty wore his own Westwood suit, not at all as his fashion but just as fabulous. Black with a crisp black shirt and a black Alexander McQueen tie, grey skulls subtly decorating it. They matched, the perfect pair...

But he had caught eyes wandering, eyes he didn't much care to see focused on Katherine. His Katherine.

Jim slowly crossed the room and wrapped his arm around Katherine's small waist, pulling her into his side. He already new every pair of eyes on the room were on them due to the new behaviour. For the past thirty minutes they had each stayed apart, aimlessly wandering around the empty office and moving between seats. Yet now, they were together and Moriarty was the one making a could be anything so they all watched on as his hand came to rest on the small of her back and Jim's lips grazed her jaw, kissing a line up to her ear.

"Aren't ordinary boys adooorable darling?" He suddenly broke the silence which had polluted the air for the past twenty minutes. He pulled Katherine in front of him a rested his chin on her shoulder, pouting at one particular hadn't been able to watch Jim for long. His eyes had always drifted back to Katherine on her hips, her revealed skin, the curve of her neck. "Look how nervous you make them? That one is almost blushing...". Jim nodded towards a young boy, no more than 25 years old, stood dead in front of them. He was looking down now, avoiding Jim's stare. But he wouldn't drop it that easily. Glancing to the side, Jim noticed Katherine smirk and grinned easily. She was smirking right at the young lad, making his sweat and falter, if this was what the clients best men were like Jim would have no problem sorting this deal.

Separating himself from Katherine, he took three long strides until he was almost nose to nose with the guard. "You like my girl?" Jim took a glance behind him to get the view of Katherine this boy had been experiencing since their arrival. With a snarl and a casual shrug, he then turned back and squared his shoulders. "She's got a nasty bite to her but with a bit of heavy petting..." Jim walked around him until they were both watching Katherine and Jim's ears hovered by the mans ears. "She's a flexible little pussy cat."

All she could do was smirk and walk away from the pair, trying not to grin to wide due to how red the soldier was turning and how weak he looked, all because he saw her and a couple of carefully chosen words were spoken in his ear.

"Take it from me my friend...who wouldn't be able to handle her." He walked the rest of the circle and stood, staring into the manes eyes with an unfathomable fury. "So take your eyes off her, or I'll make sure you never see anything pretty again."

"Darling." Katherine interrupted him, calling to him from across the room. Upon turning, Jim looked at her with a heavy brow and scowled. "Play nice." It was teasing, said through a grin as she took a break from chewing on her lip. As a result, Jim rolled his eyes ever so dramatically and slumped away with slouched shoulders to join her at the window.

"He's testing my patience." He whispered close to her eyes, his hot breath skimming her exposed neck. However, Katherine only pursed her lips and turned her head just enough so their eyes met. They were close, too close for those watching them to be comfortable with. They'd heard the stories, whether there was truth in them it didn't matter. When Mrs Moriarty was around Jim Moriarty was all the more dangerous and her sudden unannounced arrival with him had unsettled them all.

"You said he was a big client, he'll be hear soon." Her voice was soft, casual, watching her stance as she stood with her hands in her pocked and with an elegant slouch. Her appeared had even surprised him when she'd emerged from her room, a quick turn around from her ugly government office wear.

But Jim growled again and flashed a look at the still petrified guard. "I meant the boy."

It caused Katherine to turn with a light chuckle, placing a hand on his jaw to pull his attention back to her. "You wanted me to be a distraction, so don't complain when I happens." They looked too human in that moment, too easy to tame.

Katherine's hand dropped from Jim's chin just as the door to the office opened with a sharp click. He shot her a look before turning away and put a small distance between them.

The man who entered first was a guard, but who followed was definitely their man. Tall, in his thirties, undoubtedly cultured in his fine suit and Italian leather shoes. Hair impeccably styled, even giving Moriarty's slicked back do a run for its money.

Upon seeing Jim the man smiled in greeting. But when he laid eye on her the smile dropped, replaced ever so briefly with surprise, but then the smile came back and he greeted them.

"Mr Moriarty...and Mrs Moriarty, what a nice surprise." He walked with confidence, shaking hands with Jim as they traded sides of the desk, Katherine walking as she walked around the opposite end. "If you both please, take a seat." Her husband never once smiled, not even as she took her seat next to him. He wasn't like the Italian, he kept emotions minimal and socialising was out of the question.

"Nice of you to join us, Mr Caponi." Sarcasm was never the best way to begin a business meeting with the type of men Moriarty chose to play with, but it was his preferred method, to show confidence.

"My apologies, a previous meeting over ran." For being Italian, the man had obviously learnt from an American tutor and had spoke English for a long time. He was most fluent than most of the youths in England. "I must first thank you for agreeing to meet with me, but I do wish you'd have told me you'd be bringing along your wife, I would have laid out much more suitable refreshments." Mr Caponi smiled at Katherine and gestured to the bottle of scotch and ice bucket laid out on the small table to their left.

"No worries, I can enjoy a scotch as much as the men." She didn't want to focus on how the man recognised her. As much as it empowered her, it also made her ever so slightly nervous. Proof little bits of Lucy still ran through her blood. Knowing these types of people knew her name, her face, her identity and status when she had never even heard of their name...it just made her wonder were it stopped. Who else recognised her, who else knew her. Where was the line drawn?

"You're proposal, Mr Caponi?" Jim brought the mans head back to earth and away from his wife.

"Ah yes." He seemed to look at imaginary papers in front of him on the table, before he finally looked at Jim and smiled. He had that smile all of Jim's clients had, that slimy 'I know more than you' smug grin. It never failed to repulse her. "I would like your undivided attention over the next month or so-"

"Undivided?" Jim interrupted, before his voice went up an octave. "I don't believe I ever suggested such a service. I have other clients."

"I can pay you all they can, doubled." But Jim just rolled his eyes, unamused and unaffected by the promise of money. "If you'll just listen..." He stopped goofing around as Katherine quirked her brow. But it made the Italian stutter. Both pairs of eyes trained on him like the alphas of a pack of wolves, waiting for his to trip. They barely blinked, both sat with their hands on their knees, ears turned to him. It was a surprisingly sickening sight, so simple. They weren't even doing much but layered the air with thick tension. "Your name is a one which is hard to escape these days, Moriarty. I seem to be hearing either your name or about your actions." When his eyes turned to Katherine, neither faltered. They just kept watching him. "I must say, Mrs Moriarty, you look very well considering the stories."

"All of which I presume have been greatly exaggerated." Her eyes had darkened, her cheeks hollowing as she clenched her teeth and swallowed hard.

But Jim carried on for her, clearing his throat and shrugging. "Yes, if was it was only her hip and knee which needed replacing. Doctors say she's strong enough to live with only one lung." Finally, Katherine let slip a smirk and rolled her eyes as her husband expressed all his humour through sunken in eyes.

They were like hyenas. Making each other chortle and giggle fiendishly as their targeted prey sat totally unaware than they could very well be taking their last breaths. At least that was, if it didn't do something to amuse them and soon.

"It would be a honour to have to as a partner Moriarty, not as a consultant." Even though he was finally getting to the point, Katherine wished he hadn't said the words quite so bluntly, for his own sake. He surely couldn't have just suggested being a partner...surely.

Jim answer was just as she had expected. "I don't take on partners. Far too much commitment. People become too attached...it only leads to heartbreak."

Mr Caponi gave a small chuckle, but it was forced, awkward. "Come on Jim, I could offer you more than enough to see you through the next five years, comfortably. Give your girl here a couple of nice shopping trips, not to mention a second honeymoon." Katherine's smile dropped as she fidgeted in her seat. Mr Caponi wasn't paying enough attention to Jim, had he of, he would have noticed the tensing of his jaw. Katherine seen it and she hadn't even been looking at him. But this man this 'rich' and 'successful' Italian had failed to, and he had been staring at him the whole time.

Jim was growing angry. He didn't deal with intimidation well, he definitely didn't deal well with people who acted more important than they were. He had explained this man to her and she could already see the cracks which Moriarty had described. First off, his men had been weak, secondly he had been too blunt with Jim and lastly, he had failed to actually state what he wanted Jim to be a partner on.

"Bring me in on this operation you have, show me the ropes." He just wanted seeing it was he?

"You mean like be a mentor?" Jim was overly amused when Katherine took the reins and began picking at the boss. She was obviously just as irritated at the downright absurd suggestion he was presenting them with. "You can't just learn the tricks of this trade Mr Caponi." She chuckled ok her head, picking her drink up from the small table between herself and Jim and sipping it.

"I believe you did though, Mrs Moriarty-"

"Katherine, please." She intruded his belittling comment with a stern glare. "And I'll think you'll find that contrary to what you've heard, I live in this business, I didn't just merely learn it." He gave another nervous scoff and looked down to escape her protruding stare. It made Jim swell with glee, seeing how she just did things like that so easily. It required minimum effort from her these days and god did it make him want her.

My Caponi glanced at Moriarty as reassurance of his mood given the sudden change in his wife's demeanour. But he was even more difficult to read. "My apologies if I came across incorrectly..." He bowed his head at Katherine but then smirked at Jim. "I can see why you married her."

"It's ever so surprising how many men think that I will accept that as a compliment." The mans smile dropped instantly, the first clever thing he had done since gracing their presence.

Katherine standing beside him caught his eyes, but not to the level it caught Mr Caponi's. she walked around her chair and over to the bookcases at the far left of the pouch office, decorated mostly in deep reds and subtle patterns. She was bored, or at least she was acting it, just like Jim had wanted.

"Do get on with it please, my wife doesn't have a very good patience."

Mr Caponi smiled and then nodded before continuing with his proposal. "I want to know your network, I want to know how you know the Floment group in Asia and how you helped on their operations."

"That's just being nosey." When he'd receive contact from Mr Caponi he had spoke of a deal regarding the organisation of an important operation regarding another one of Italy's leading gangs. He had refused to speak with anyone other than him, in person, about the details as they were so 'vulnerable'. And it had all been a rouse. He'd been lied to and he didn't like that one bit. Not when it had led to Katherine and himself both being identifiable and in the same place with little back up compared to what he wanted. But he couldn't let on to Katherine that it wasn't part of the plan...

Not that he didn't have a plan, of course he always planned for these little mishaps. It just meant it was going to be a lot messier than either party had planned.

"I won't take no for an answer Jim, I want it on this." The mans hostility started to set in, eyes narrowing and fingers beginning to tap a slow rhythm on the dark wood of the desk.

"Why?"

"I see great profit in it. You didn't think you would be the only Criminal Consultant forever did you?" Opposite the Italian, Jim pouted and shrugged as if he was considering the question. Mocking the man in front of him, it helped settle his anger just a little bit.

"Then do it yourself, I did." Jim stood from his seat, ignoring the glared from his admirer and crossed the room to Katherine. He pulled her into his chest and nipped her right hip so she felt it indefinitely. "I built all of this myself, I even built this fine thing..."

"Why do that when I can get a head start using you?" Standing from behind the desk, he made the look towards his men far too obvious. Did he not know who they were, what he was dealing with? They were an incomprehensible force, a one you couldn't simply barter with.

It didn't matter who you were, how much money you offered and therefor how much money if mean Jim was throwing away. You couldn't be allowed to continue, not once you saw his face and all for some stupid self righteous idea. Jim could live with the big boys knowing his face, under the right circumstances. But the fishes who lied and cheated their way to him...too Katherine...they were flirting with death.

"How did you think this would turn out, honestly? Did you think you would win? I'm so sweet when people don't consider the consequences." His hands constantly moved over Katherine's skin, a delicately designed code which was uncrackable to the smartest of beings. No one knew her body like him and he used it to his advantage. "You want me to pass over all my contacts then...kill me? Please, that soooo predictable." He turned them so Jim's side faced Mr Caponi, Katherine looking up to him like a loyal lap dog while inside, her brain tracked and traced his movements. "So boring."

In a flash, they both moved and Katherine was pushed behind his back placing her between Moriarty and the bookcase. Whereas he stood confidently as bullets wrecked the room. They were all so synchronised however than it only lasted a few seconds. The first had been a perfectly aimed shot to the Italians head, killing his instantly. The second, administered from one of Jim's men to the guard closest to Moriarty. And the rest to each of the other guards. None of Moriarty's men even suffered a minor injury.

Slowly, Jim turned and smiled at Katherine who was casually leaning back against the book shelf. "My apologies darling, I genuinely thought this would be a pleasant outing." Her brow simply quirked with doubt as he moved his wrist to his mouth to speak into the telecom device. "Sebastian, nice shot. Get this place cleaned up."

Jim took a couple of steps into the middle of the room to oversea the damage, while Katherine counted the bodies and tried to calculate how long Sebastian would be occupied for. It was a few hours work easy ,the poor guy, the blood she'd wasn't minimal.

"It's only 9 o'clock." Katherine said quietly and pouted, stuffing her hands back in her pockets. But her husband seemed to get the hint as he grinned and sauntered over to her, pulling her into him but this time she could relax into it, seeing as to how she wasn't needing to pay attention to each finger tap on her body.

"Seems such a waste when you're looking so delicious." The scene made even his own men's stomachs turn. In a room slowly filling with the scent of death and stained by blood, pooling around their feet. They were showing more affection than they did on any normal occasion. "How about dinner?"

"Sounds wonderful."


	15. Chapter 15

Katherine stalked behind her husband as he gracefully skipped down the steps of their home. Her face wasn't happy, nor would any wife's be in her position. Only last night, Jim had turned to her and announced her would be departing at noon the next day...for a fortnight. A nice little travel across the majority of Eastern Europe to meet some of his men deep on the inside of a few select terror groups. It was going to be dangerous, but that wasn't why she was angry. It was because he had been planning the trip for weeks and it had just so happened to slip his mind. So she'd had one evening to prepare for two weeks going solo, leaning of all the plans Moriarty was dropping, meeting she needed to attend and operations which needed confirming.

And she had done it all, sat up until early sunlight with Jim in his office, all while he smirked smugly as her pout. She was so cute sometimes, so precious. So delectably tempting to annoy.

"Do try to behave." She spoke loud enough for him to hear as they both walked towards the front door of the house, Katherine falling slightly behind due to his quick steps.

"It should be me telling you to be good." Jim smiled, suddenly turning so she had to halt before she collided with his chest. Looking down his nose, his smile turned into a snarl all too quickly. "If I find out you call in sick to work, I'll have you for shoes."

"And if I'm good?" Katherine couldn't help but lick her lips. He liked to think he could threaten her, it was cute.

Jim's hand cupped her cheek delicately and he laid a light kiss on her temple, whispering. "I'll bring you back some shoes." His hands fell back to his sides too soon for Katherine's liking and he took a step back to apply his sunglasses. "The Apscot Case moved to Tuesday evening remember. She's not some hot shot stud so dress to not make her envy you too much. Fender is in action come Thursday at 8am, Soho on Sunday at 2pm and Quebec on the following Monday, time to be confirmed." It was all reeled off ever so quickly but she understood every word and nodded seamlessly after each point. Until Jim stopped and raised a brow at her. "You remember what to do for Denver?"

"72-43-16 .wk ." Katherine recalled the instructions without a single fault. She'd done similar work before, many a times over the past three years, and she wasn't stupid.

"Good girl. Just for that I'll make sure to have something sent to you from Poland." He came closer again, showing off his constant hot and cold personality perfectly. With a hand on her hip and another on her her neck, Moriarty's voice dropped low. "Stay out of London. After work come straight home. Don't give me reason to stunt your ability to be mobile."

Katherine didn't move, didn't smile, she didn't really do anything. She just gave one simple nod and then watched in the corner of her eye as Moriarty's driver came to stand just beyond the front door.

"Sir, the car is ready." She didn't want him to leave, she never wanted him to leave. He was the only person she could be herself around. Sebastian was a close second but he would never understand her like Jim did. Without him, she didn't have a life. It was sad and pathetic but he gave her everything and when he left, she was just another one of his agents following instructions. It was only when he was in front of her, she really felt alive.

This was the longest he'd left home without her since the shooting too, not that she was afraid to be alone but... it still didn't feel right to spend so much time alone. Jim leaving also meant one less distraction from the thoughts that still occasionally plagued her mind.

"Stop with the boring puppy look. It doesn't suit you." He pinched her cheek and then gave a genuine grin, as genuine as he could anyway. "Goodbye darling, I'll be in touch." He wouldn't dare say the other words, not when so many of his less trusted men surrounded them.

"See you soon." After the words were spoken, Jim detached from her and turned his back on her. Not once did he glance behind him and wave or wink...not once did he do anything she wanted him too. He just left.

Very soon, a couple of minutes had passed, the car had pulled away and the front door had been closed. But Katherine still stood staring at the door as if he was going to come back, it was all just going to be a big cruel joke of his.

When she came to her senses, the majority of the staff were still standing around her, gawking. All of them awaiting orders she was sure had been given hours ago.

"What are you all standing around for?" She snapped, brush down her already perfect skirts and scowling. As expected, they scuttled away like rats. All but one, the leader of the pack.

"Shouldn't you be going along with him?"

Sebastian came to a stop just centimetres from her side. Hold in his hands behind his back, he gave a small hum of amusement. "After the history of leaving you on your own? He may come across uncaring, but he puts thought into protecting you."

"Uncaring to you..." Katherine rolled her eyes and finally turned away from the door. As she uncrossed her arms she played with the china bangle on her arm, a gift from Jim from one of his travels over a year ago. One of her favourite, with floral patterning. He did care, no matter what people said even him.

"Are you wanting to do anything particular this Sunday afternoon Katherine?" Sebastian once again interrupted her thoughts as he fell into step beside her.

"You heard him, I'm confined to the house. Just ask for a good dinner to be prepared, and ensure no one gets in my way for the remainder of the day." She was tired from the long night and wanted nothing more than to retire back into her silk nightwear, listen to the soft sounds of Rossini with a ice cold glass of gin.

Retreating to the stairs to go back to her room and have a long hot bath, she was grateful when Sebastian separated from her and headed back towards the kitchen. It would be wise for everyone to leave her alone. She was the sole runner of this household for the next two weeks and unlike Moriarty, she paid more attention to people than business.

* * *

Hours later, long after the sun had set, Katherine laid out on the Italian sofa with a fourth glass of red wine in hand. She had forced more than half the staff to retire so she could be as alone as possible. All that remained was her guards and Sebastian, both of which were so inconspicuous that if she distracted herself enough then she forget they were there. However with Jim gone, distractions were hard to come by.

But his first text had come sooner after him leaving than she thought. Though it was small and business related...and in reply to impulsive text she had sent him after her bath. She'd still been annoyed and requested into why she hadn't been invited to join him instead of sitting at home. He'd been patient though and answered. Apparently the only reason he hadn't allowed her to tag along was because of Mycroft's stupid little office job, something she wished Jim would so longingly relieve her of. But every time she thought he was about to, a lovely little detective would show his face or some more interesting intelligence would be discovered.

That lovely, little detective.

He was a growing thorn in her side, the spell she just couldn't pick out from under her skin.

He had infected her husbands brain like a plague, a spreading infection which day by day took more and more of Jim's attention away from her. She had thought it was fixed after the shooting. He had been so dedicated to her. But with each step of her recovery, another part of him turned back towards Sherlock. She didn't understand why he was so invested with him, what the fascination was. After all, every time she seen him he was more unbearable than the time before.

Over the past three months, since their last meeting which lasted too long, she had barely been in contact over text with him, plainly because she could bear to. It was irritating and hadn't excited or satisfied her since she first started. She didn't want to converse with the man who slowly stole her husbands attention from her.

But now, she was so bored she'd do anything to distract her from the still, empty house.

Katherine swirled the dangerously overfilled glass of deep red wine in her hand and reached across the plush sofa to retrieve her second phone. It was barely used, but she never failed to keep it charged and by her side to keep Jim happy if he ever asked.

Her short lace night slip rode up ever so slightly as her silk gown opener, flashing her upper thigh. Falling back into the cushion, Katherine held the phone up above her face and opened a new message.

She wanted him to entertain her, because god knows something needed to. It was the first night of fourteen that she was going to be alone through and it was already painful. Mr Holmes would become her distraction, whether he wanted to be or not.

To: Sherlock Holmes

Let's play a game.

K.I.M xx

She didn't know what her game would be. Maybe she would throw his one of the riddles Jim tried to amuse her with ever so regularly. She hated riddles...never had liked them. Each time he 'surprised' her with one it would always end up with her being called stupid because she couldn't solve them within a few minutes. Not that she tried. Normally she would hum and ah until he just gave up and told her.

Ah e she could get Sherlock to feel the same despair, make him so mind numbingly bored that it physically hurt. Katherine smiled thinking of it. She wished she could speak to him away from Mycroft's office and away from all of the hidden identities. As much as she hated to admit it, she had been avoiding him but she was intrigued. Not as much as her husband, but enough just to warrant a small need to get him alone just to see how much he could see when he looked at her. What could his mind do? How did he do it?

But a couple of minutes later, when the phone dinged, her smile turned into a frown.

From: Sherlock Holmes

Busy.

SH

Well...at least he wasn't standing her up completely. It was funny, how after months of practically silence he still replied to her as if they were comrades.

To: Sherlock Holmes

My my, how rude.

K.I.M xx

If he wasn't going to play along then she would retire to bed. Maybe she would try again another night, maybe she would play with him a little more forwardly if he strolled into her office this week. Maybe, just maybe.

* * *

Tchaikovsky's Pas d'action Introduction (Andante) and Rose Adagio from the world renowned Sleeping Beauty Ballet played all through the house on the fancy sound system. No matter which room she moved to, the sweet symphony followed her, allowing her steps to follow in time with the orchestra.

She was bored. More bored than...well bored. Jim was away, but while cat was away the mouse wasn't playing. She'd been left with no work now the first week was up. All the jobs had been complete, not even one extra instruction would relieve her from the mind numbing dullness which was her life when Moriarty wasn't strutting around.

Instead, in the morning she traveled into London to sit behind a desk for a few hours and then came home to sit by the fire, drinking wine until it became a respectable time to sleep.

Jims trip was dragging rottenly, he'd only been gone one week but it already seemed like a month. She was on her second bottle of wine of the day, the others from the past week could have build up a small house. She wanted someone, anyone to come entertain her...to come...play with her.

Maybe she could ring Jim? It was reaching 6pm there so it would be later where he was. Maybe he'd be in bed? Maybe he'd appreciate the company...

Just as she went to reach for her phone, the second one resting on the edge of the her chair rattled with vibrations. It was in such a position where she didn't need to pick it up to read. Suddenly, all images of Jim had fallen from her mind and replaced by the tall detective she somewhat missed.

From: Sherlock Holmes

Let's play a game.

SH.

"So now you want to play huh?" Her dark chuckled filled the room as she fell onto her back, carefully as to not spill a drop of the dark red liquid which stained her lips.

He had a nerve. What had he been doing for the past week? What had he been doing just a moment ago to make him think of her, or at least her on screen presence? What had happened? She craved to know but she already knew she would never learn.

To: Sherlock Holmes

I knew you liked me.

K.I.M xx

She dropped the phone on her knee and took a large gulp of wine before turning down the overly sound soundtrack. If she was going to talk to him she needed to be able to concentrate but she also needed something soft running in the background to keep her calm.

The bell sounded and she wanted no time in picking the device up, holding it steady above her face.

From: Sherlock Holmes

20 questions. You can only answer yes or no. I go first.

SH.

Maybe he too was bored? Maybe he was in exactly the same position as her? Sitting alone, at home, on an awfully boring Sunday night just wanting a little company. Maybe he was curious?

With a smirk and a girlish chuckle, Katherine went to type back her agreement to play, but before she could a second message came through from the detective.

From: Sherlock Holmes

Have we met?

SH.

Well wasn't he feeling demanding this evening...First they didn't talk for weeks, then he turns her down and now it seemed he wanted nothing more than to quiz her. It should have made her nervous, it should have caused concern. But she was happy for the distraction, and she was pleased someone other than Sebastian or Jim was reaching out to her.

But she did wish shops could have teased him a bit more than just giving him a simple yes or no.

To: Sherlock Holmes

Yes.

K.I.M xx

She was half tempted to lie...just say no and keep him off the main track to her. He could tell if she was lying through text surely? Never the less, temptation had got the better of her. So she decided to tell the truth for every question. Jim told her he was a harmless pussy cat, if someone was going to come after her then she would prefer it to be him than another one of Jim's contacts. Besides, her husband had told her to make Sherlock want to find her and telling the truth was the only way to make that happen. Besides, the truth was a lot more interesting than some lie.

From: Sherlock Holmes

Recently?

SH.

To: Sherlock Holmes

Yes

K.I.M xx

From: Sherlock Holmes

Do you know me through my work?

SH.

To: Sherlock Holmes

Yes.

K.I.M xx

From: Sherlock Holmes

Are you a client?

SH.

Like she would even need to be one of his clients... No woman needed a detective when she had a consulting criminal sleeping in her bed.

To: Sherlock Holmes

No.

K.I.M xx

From: Sherlock Holmes

Are you a convicted?

SH.

Was that what he called them? The people he found? The people his clients came to home about? Maybe she was a little bit? A target convicted.

To: Sherlock Holmes

No.

K.I.M xx

From: Sherlock Holmes

You've seen my blog.

SH.

Unfortunate the answer to that was yes. One god awful afternoon Jim had shown it to her and scrolled through some of the published articles. She'd nodded and read through the first couple but then she had become bored, and the grin on Jim's face had angered her beyond belief. So she'd distracted him. After that, she vowed to herself to never be involved with 'The Science of Deduction' again.

To: Sherlock Holmes

...Yes and no.

K.I.M xx

From: Sherlock Holmes

You can't use both.

SH.

To: Sherlock Holmes

Then no.

K.I.M xx

She had laid eyes on it but she couldn't recall it. Therefore she would give him false hope in being a fan.

But this was boring, instead of being entertained by Sherlock she was simply answering stupid questions which weren't even interesting. Why did it matter to him if she had seen his blog? Why would that help him? They were useless questions that narrowed nothing down.

They were boring. Sherlock was boring. All he was proving was that he was and always would be boring. No matter what her husband said. Boring. Boring. Boring.

To: Sherlock Holmes

Bored.

K.I.M xx

From: Sherlock Holmes

I still have 14 questions.

SH.

This was happening her way or no way. He didn't reach out to her first, he didn't hold the key, he didn't have a clue. This was her game not his, not matter who had suggested it.

Katherine chewed on her lips as she typed out her repeated message and pressed send.

To: Sherlock Holmes

Bored.

K.I.M xx

What did Jim see in him? What drew him in so much? Yes he was different...he could see things which ordinary people could and she knew how much Jim hates the ordinary people. But he wasn't anything special in Katherine's eyes, not apart from that fact. He was still just a man, who bled and breathed. He had a job, be it a rare one. He had a family and a home...

What did he have that she didn't which attracted her husband so?

From: Sherlock Holmes

Who are you?

SH.

To: Sherlock Holmes

If I told you, what would our game be?

K.I.M xx

From: Sherlock Holmes

You're a woman.

Over 30.

Not single.

Based on the timings of your contacts, you work.

Please stop me if I'm wrong.

SH.

How? How could he know when they had only been texting? A woman and the times she could quite possibly understand, but her age and status, they could have only been lucky guessed. Unless her already knew and that was what had spark his sudden interest. In her excitement of receiving his attention had she made a slip? A slip so possibly even too small for her to tell?

Before she could reply, he sent a following text.

From: Sherlock Holmes

Thought so.

SH.

Her heart was beating at twice its normal rate, her palms becoming sweaty and shaking. It wasn't the end of the world. He hadn't identified her, he still didn't have a name...she was still just writing on the screen which he had only deduced to belonging to the majority of Englands population.

From: Sherlock Holmes

You're English.

We have met but not in an unfamiliar context, meaning you were in disguise.

You were normal. Boring.

Who. Are. You?

SH

He was stuck...he had to be. The additional details in the second text weren't anything too clever, basic analysis of her answers to his previous questions. He still didn't know. It was evident from his protruding frustration in his last question.

To: Sherlock Holmes

You tell me Mr Holmes.

K.I.M xx

With that sent, she threw the phone to the other side of the sofa and with a huff, closed her eyes and fell back against the cushions.

She'd had enough of him for today, game complete or not. She still didn't know how to play him and until she did, she needed to back off.


	16. Chapter 16

Katherine had heard the car before she heard the door open. She'd heard the loud thud as he dropped his bag onto the marble floor before Jim opened up his lungs, bellowing out his greeting.

"Honey! I'm home!" The mere volume could have shattered glass but it only brought her glee.

It had been so peaceful and quiet while he was gone. But it had lasted too long and she was relieved her was home. She'd missed him. She'd missed his warmth beside her in the middle of the night and his daily mood swings which kept her on edge but swooning. If it was up to her, he was never leaving for such a long period of time again.

With a wide smile, Katherine walked through from the kitchen, the spaghetti strap three quarter length dress hugging her waist. He was dressed, impeccably as always, in a dark blue Westwood suit and sunglasses still covering his eyes.

"Long time no see." Katherine tried to tame her smile as she approached him, slowing her paces until she stopped just less than a foot away.

He seemed to return her grin, but something was off. She noticed as he removed his glasses. He didn't speak and his eyes were burning, his pupils dilating. Jim had watched her intensely since she'd first appeared but she was stupid to think it had been out of lust or...anything at all positive. The smirk wasn't vacant from his mouth but it was scaring her and combined with his silence it was deadly.

Before she could open her mouth to ask what was wrong, Jim hummed low and chuckled under his breath. It made her blood run cold and her feet tingle with adrenaline which was already starting to pump through her, flight or fight was a normal occurrence living with him but it never got less frightening.

"Jim?" It was only after she'd spluttered out the whisper, that she realised all the normal staff were missing. There should have been many bodies around them, moving Jim's things and organising his return...but there was no one. Sebastian wasn't even by the door, awaiting orders after his boss's return. But for one, she wasn't grateful for the privacy for it meant something was serious...something big.

Jim huffed again and his head nodded quickly but minimally. After it looked like he would laugh, the glimmer of a grim sank into a grimace. His nose twitched and Katherine could see his tongue running over his teeth behind his closed lips. He was livid, at her. But why...she couldn't think. In an instant her head began to roll through the past two weeks but nothing jumped out. She'd gone to work, came home, sat and waited for his return. There was nothing she had done.

"You want to admit it...before I REALLY, loose it?" His tongue rolled as he growled. She could feel his breath on her face and fought to not close her eyes. "Hmm?"

She had nothing to say. How could she have anything to say when she had no idea what he was talking about? But his face was pure fury. Surely if she had done something that bad she would remember?

"Don't make me do something I don't want to do...Katherine." Lowering his chin so it almost pushed down into his sternum, he search her for something so she stared back at him. She opened her heart and everything else she possibly could without making a noise but it wouldn't do any good. She'd seen him a few times like this, decreasingly so over the years. But she'd witnessed it firsthand. Nothing could have prepared her for what was coming though.

"Come on." Suddenly, Moriarty's hand was around her wrist, twisting it until he held her hand behind her back and his chest was pressed against her back, steering her body forwards. At first she struggled, squirming in his grip but the more she moved the harder he dug his nails into her skin. So she stopped. "Cooome on." His pitch was high as he sung in her ear as he pushed her harshly towards the back of the house, closer to the garden.

"Ah, wha-" Katherine hissed and tried to find comfort. But no matter what way she turned, her shoulder became more pained.

"Shut it." That was enough to shut Katherine up.

For a moment she thought he was taking her to his office, but after a sharp turn she figured it was the garden. But just a second down the hallway, leading out to the pristine patio, Jim turned her body causing her back to jolt and kicked open the door to the pool.

The entire room was sculpted out of marble, shine, new, barely used. It was the largest out of any of their past residences and the water lay calm and undisturbed.

His harsh grip on her distracted her from even wondering why he had brought her to that precise location. All she could think of, or at least try to think of, was what had caused him to turn so harshly. But she still came up blank. However, she had still been deep in thought when Jim was harshly whispered something in her ear. She went to ask him to repeat it but then she noticed how he wasn't slowing his pace and the edge of the pool was coming closer and closer.

"Ji-" He cut her off by letting her go, but it was only so he could throw her into the pool.

Katherine hit the water with a large splash, the tepid water swallowing her up from Jim's view for just a second until it somewhat calmed.

She barely had a chance to take a breath before she hit the water. The lack of preparation caused her lungs to fill as soon as she was under the water. The chlorine stinging the sinuses in the bridge of her nose terrible as her eyes blurred and itched.

Have you ever been in one of those moments, where something such a shock you don't know which way is up and you have no idea how to move? That was Katherine. No matter how much she kicked her legs she failed to touch the tiled floor of the pool or resurface. The only way she managed to take a breath of air was after Moriarty's hands grabbed her under the arms and pulled her up.

He had watched her, flailing under the water like some sort of injured jellyfish. He had smirked sickeningly and risked a chuckle as he pulled at the knot of his tie. Then, he had slowly removed his suit jacket holding all his valuables, but he never took his eyes of the blur that was his wife struggling under the water. She was so pathetic. Poor bitch couldn't even stand up in four foot of water. With a roll of his eyes, Jim moved towards the steps leading into the water and slowly descended them, paying little to no notice on the temperature or the sensation of his trousers sticking to his skin. Instead, all he focused on was Katherine as his hands reached into the water and pulled her up.

"You really are stupid, you know that?" Moriarty spat in her face before pushing her down in the water. But Katherine had still been too much in shock to act quick and missed another breath. Almost too quickly, her lungs started to fill with water again.

Thankfully, he pulled her up again. This time holding her there until she blinked away the water and she looked at him. Although he was a blur. Her eyes were stinging with the mild chemical burn and she was gasping loud and ugly.

"The Ukrainian contract...the one we spent seven months organising..." Once more, Katherine was submerged after just catching a clean breath of air.

Inside, Katherine willed herself to stay strong and calm. It would be over soon. Jim never carried his punishments on for long but then again they had never been this cruel. But the bubbles bursting against her face made it hard to stay calm, as did her excruciating lungs as she was forced to release her breath too soon.

The claustrophobia was unbelievable. It was a perfect summers day outside yet it was pitch black under the water. Her legs were starting to go weak leaving her unable to kick and fight. Katherine's whole body seemed to be failing her.

When she resurfaced for the third time, her eyes stayed closed so she didn't see his anger, but she heard it. She heard it in every syllable he pronounced. She also felt it as one of his hands moved from her arms and wrapped around her throat.

"One of the main reasons I had to skip across Eastern Europe for fourteen days..." Moriarty's words weren't even registering. They did penetrate past the fear and panic.

Jim restricting hold around her wind pipe made it impossible to breath. When she disappeared under the water again, an alarming burst of bubble broke the surface as all of the remaining oxygen was forced from her lungs. Had it have been possible to heave, Katherine would have been sick. Her head started to ring and her fingers which had been so desperately trying to pry Jim's hands off her, slipped away.

This time it took a while for Katherine to realise she was no longer under the water. It took her lungs longer to notice air was available and although Jim's had was still at her neck, it wasn't squeezing .

"Almost dropped out because of your fuck up..." That was when she finally listened, but it had no context. Dropped out? He must have been talking about a client...a contact? So,done he had went to see? And that was her fault? How? What had she done? Everything had been checked, double checked and triple checked my Jim himself...

"Speak...speak Katherine!"

Weak, Katherine breathed out an attempt to explain herself. But it was hard when you didn't have the faintest idea of what had happened and when your heart was still hammering inside your chest. "I...I..." James rolled his eyes, cheeks sucked in.

For a moment...his hands were so light on her skin that she thought he was about to let go. Her breathing was finally calming down the skin was rolling from her face, allowing her to see, though only just. He was finished. At least she thought he was.

"You're pathetic!" The mutter had come for under his breath, giving the further illusion that he was calming down. But then, only a second later, Jim gripped her throat again and pushed her under.

And he held her there...

Jim Moriarty held his wife under the water of their own pool for at least ninety seconds. For any other person it may have not been much of a threat, but for someone who was already short of breath and lightheaded it was dangerous. At 30 seconds, her time under the water started to feel like minutes. At 40, her chest started to burn. At 70, she made the mistake of breathing out and she started to choke on the water as her nails scratched Jim's wrist in pleading. At 90...she turned limp. Her eyes shut and her head slipped back.

At almost two minutes, Jim noticed the stillness of the water and the sudden increase of weight and slowly he pulled her up to the surface.

It didn't take long for the panic to set in, seeing what he had caused with his own hands. "Hey!..." I'm expected her to jump to life...but if anything she just sagged deeper into unconsciousness. Supporting her head with one of his hands, he moved a finger to her neck to feel for a pulse. But she wasn't easy to hold and every time, she slipped before he could trace anything. The only sound in the whole room was the water draining from her hair as Jim manoeuvred her into his arms, holding her like a baby and carrying her to the edge of the pool. "...Hey! Katherine..." He screamed the words as he pinned her body between himself and the tiled wall. But still...nothing.

She looked peaceful. But she was the only peaceful being present. In his chest, Jim's heart was thumping as he studied her seemingly lifeless body, floating and unresponsive.

With one sudden burst of energy, Moriarty picked her up and placed her as gently as he could on the side of the pool. He made sure her head didn't smack against the hard marble floor and turned her onto her side. His chin rested on the hard surface just in front of her face, waiting to feel a breath. But there was nothing.

"No...no no no, don't be boring...Don't be boring!" Jim's fist slammed the surface of the water, sending droplets flying over both bodies. She couldn't just slip, she couldn't just go like that. So easily! She was stronger than that! She couldn't...

This was all her fault anyway. She'd caused this. She had brought this upon herself.

"Kat...kitty Kat?" Jim moved back to her, and touched her neck again. His other hand stroked down her chest to hover over her heart. It took a few seconds to locate, but eventually he was washed over with relief as a faint heartbeat thumped near her jugular. It was uneven, barely traceable and broken but it was there.

"Katherine..." For a second, Jim allowed his forehead to fall down onto his arm as he breathed a sigh of relief. But then he perked up and lifted himself out of the pool so he could lay beside her, his head held over her own so he could look down at her.

It was all her fault. All her stupid fault.

Why did she have to be so beautiful?

Whilst in Ukraine, his tenth night away from her and his second in the country itself, he had got...distracted for lack of a better term. His mind was elsewhere. The longer the trip dragged on for, the more tedious the days became to live through. Being alive was soooo boring. It had taken several days to realise however, that life when at home was never so painful. Because of her.

She made the less exciting moments worth living for and she made the more irritating of daily chores temporarily worthy of attention.

Katherine Moriarty was the best distraction he had ever found and he had been looking for them his whole life.

Since he'd excelled into the genius he was at a young age, his brain had fought from something, longed for anything, which would relieve the sweet longing for peace. Peace from the humming at the back of his head, the drumming to end it all. Sometimes it didn't seem worth it, the power and the wealth just came as a sweet accessory to the small distractions. But Katherine...she was it.

If it ever did end, James already knew it would be his greatest feat. Lucy Scott would go down in history as the only one which got to him. The only one who managed to anger the lion and live. The only one who made him fear that somewhere, deep deep inside, was a human heart worthy of feeling such ordinary emotions.

At first it was waking up to unwelcome silence. Then it had been eating alone without her endless nagging. Next, being able to hear himself think every waking hour of the day. Before long he'd become riled, dangerous to be around and oh so very changeable. His men had noticed obviously...and it was her fault.

Her face was so untouched. Almost every limb and body part was scarred or tainted in some way but not her face, he'd never allow that to be touched. Ever.

Taking her hand in his, he linked their fingers together and pursed his lips, anger dripping like venom from his words. "You make me hate you so much...I despise you, you make me sick..." Because of her, her and her ghosts distractions, he'd forgot about the meeting with their client. Her fault he'd sat in a coma like daydream. It was all her fault. All because she gave him everything he ever wanted. It may not have been love or children or happiness. But a distraction meant all the same to him.

"So why is it so hard to keep hating you, why does it HURT to even think about getting rid of you?" Admittedly he had panicked when she had lay limp in his arms. The feeling of lifelessness as he'd assumed it to be, sickened him.

Seeing her chest beginning to fall less and less noticeable as the the seconds past made him sit up, but Jim still stared at her face. Like porcelain, it was perfect. He would burn for that face, he would live, die and everything in between for her. "I missed you. There. You happy?" Sounding a faint, pathetic laugh, Moriarty shook his head slowly. "Shame you're weak, shame you passed out. You would have loved to have heard that."

Katherine had yet to stir so Jim nudged her, but it did hell of a good. All he did was nudge her with enough force for her to roll back, almost on to her stomach.

"Come on." He managed to whisper through a small chuckle and brushed her soaked hair out of her face. Moving her back onto her side, he began to rub small circles on her back, patting hard enough between her shoulder blades to rouse her from her rest. It took a few goes but finally, she spluttered to life. "There we go, hey..." Katherine made an awful squeal, coughing up excess water as her back arched. Once all of the liquid was rid from her lungs, she started to breath too deeply for her own good. She was going to fall into a panic attack.

Wasting no time, Jim tugged on her arm until she fell into his lap. Her arms automatically went around his waste as his went to her head, petting it calmly. "Shhhh. Shh, shh, shh...there we go."

She didn't know what to think. She didn't know if she could think. All that was running through her head was the sensation of being under water and darkness creeping over her, Moriarty feeling further and further out of reach even though her neck was glued to his hand. It had all been so messy and busy...it was nothing like getting shot. Nothing like feeling the peace rain over her. This had been terrifying and it had all been from him; the man she clung to for dear life.

"I'm-I'm s-sorry." Katherine started to stutter in a desperate attempt to make him stop. She wanted him to stay like this, she didn't want him to go back to how he was in the water. "I do-don't know w-what I-I di-d-d."

"Hush." His hand slowly stroked over her ice cold forehead. "Forget about it, I think you've learned your lesson." Katherine nodded, her head shifting against his thigh manically. She was crying, it was subtle, but when he looked down at her it was easily to notice that the shine in her eyes was not caused by the pool. However it was harder to distinguish the tears from the leftover droplets.

"I'm sorry." Katherine whispered again, become less breathless but staying almost silent.

Jim however was completely silent and he looked away from her, unable to look at what he had caused. It wasn't rare, they outbursts of his, but they were never this bad and seeing the state he'd put her into just because he couldn't stop thinking about her was stringing something deep within him.

It was the longest he'd been away for months, months even before her shooting. Before she started working for The Iceman she would accompany him. All those times he wished she'd stayed at home, but now he only wanted her by his side.

"Come on." He stopped himself from listening to his thoughts by beginning to stand, bringing Katherine with his after gathering her in his arms bridal style. "It's past your bedtime." Her arms automatically went around his neck, her head resting on his chest against heart.

They were both soaked, water dripped from them as Moriarty carried her through the house and up the main staircase towards their bedroom. It left a trail of moisture and footprints which would led to the scene.

He was careful of the stairs, but as soon as the bedroom door closed, Jim let out a deep sigh and walked even slower over to the bed. Laying Katherine down, he started to strip her after realising she didn't have the energy to do it herself. Removing her dress, he left her in her lace underwear and then pulled the covers over her. Wet hair wasn't a threat, so he'd let her rest.

Moving to hover over her face, Jim gave a gentle smile and touched her cheek. "Look at me..." Moriarty waited until her barely open eyes focused on his. "Good girl." She slumped instantly allowing him to step back from the bed and finally take notice of the three guards sat in a line at the end of their bed, eyes pointed and heads tilted. "Watch her." He ordered, a far too human command for a canine, you would think. But they understood and the runt jumped up to lie next to her on Jim's side of the bed.

"Guard." Already, growls sounded throughout the room making him grin wide. "Good boys."

He hated nothing more than having to like her. In the beginning, he hated needing to pretend to like her but somewhere along the way it had got easier until the ease became the more irritating part. He longer needed to, he wanted to. He wants to give her oceans and nebulas, he wanted make leaders burn and empires crumble just for her. And he despised it because there was no feeling more human than that.

Upon leaving her room, Jim was greeted my Sebastian at the bottom of the stairs. A large pile of boxes and shopping bags lay behind him, having just been unloaded from the car.

"Where do you want the things for Katherine put?" Each bag belonged to her, at least they did in the form of gifts. Dresses, jewellery, shoes, even her own custom made gun based on her weigh and measurements, straight from Italy. There was something from every city he's visited.

No one asked why, no one even looked twice each time he stopped to pick out something for her.

"Leave them in the living room. She's such a fan of Christmas, why not have it six months early?" That would be his little apology for when she woke up. Some nice gifts. They would make it so easy for her to forget his little...mishaps. "If she's not awake in a couple of hours, get someone to wake her. And I want someone checking up on her regularly." He didn't even wait for Sebastian to nod before he walked away, retreating to his office. He needed to work to clear his head.

* * *

 **Hello Lovlies! Merry Christmas - here is a little present from me :)**

Just wanted to thank everyone who follows and favourited this story, I'm still surprised every time I get an alert saying theres a new reader or reveiw so please keep doing so!

Also, just an idea, would many people be interested in seeing 'What Kind Of Man' become an ebook? I've been looking it up and curious whether anyone would be interested :)


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